THE UGLY DUCKLING

 

THE UGLY DUCKLING Oct 16, 2009

There once lived a girl who was all alone. She met a boy who promised her love. The girl was happy for a while and gave herself totally to her handsome prince until the day she told him that she was with child. Then the prince changed into an evil ogre and exiled her to a life of loneliness once more. The poor lonely girl searched high and low for help and, at last, weary from her efforts, she collapsed at the gates of an orphanage. The kind Mother, seeing the girl’s distress, took her in and she was once again loved and cared for. The child in her grew and one day, it came into the world. The girl cared for her little baby till it was time for her to leave it and go back to her lonely world once more. Giving her baby a last tearful kiss as she bade it goodbye, she whispered, “May you find more love in this world than I did.”

When I was a teenager, I once watched a TV Documentary on the life of Mother Teresa and was moved by the orphans she took into her home. Many of these unfortunate ones were victims of stories similar to the one I have just narrated; little angels brought into the world by young girls who were promised love and abandoned once they had satisfied some immature boy’s hormonal urges. Mother Teresa would often say, “I offer adoption as a solution to abortion.” It was her life’s purpose to uphold the dignity of life from the womb.

I prayed that I would get the opportunity to be like her and adopt my own babies, but I was not destined for such a great deed. I remember how I took my husband to the orphanage after my first-born was 2 years old, to see if I could adopt a second child, but was told to wait. I tried again 2 years later and was told to wait again. Maybe that was God’s way of saying “This is not for you, my child!”

 So I salute those who have taken the step to adopt. They know pure love because they accept someone who is not a part of themselves in the biological sense as a generous gift from a loving God who knows best.

Recently, I came across this delightful anecdote that I’d like to share with you. A young mother was at her parents’ home after the birth of her first child. One afternoon, she remarked that it was surprising that her baby had dark hair since both she and her husband were fair. Her mother said, “Well, it’s not surprising, sweetheart. Your Dad has black hair.” “But, Mama,” cried out the young lady, “that doesn’t matter because I’m adopted.” With an embarrassed smile, her mother said the most wonderful words she’d ever heard “I always forget.”

A friend of mine, who herself has adopted a boy and dotes on him, narrated this touching real-life story to me. It seems there were two teachers in the school she taught in who were childless but had not thought of adoption. One fine day, just after examinations were over and the children were on their way back home, one lad happened to cross the pavilion and heard a low cry, only to discover a little baby in a bag placed over a pile of baby clothes. He ran to the staff room to tell the teachers. One of the two childless teachers had already left the premises but the second one jumped to her feet at once and went with the boy, her heart beating. She saw the wee babe and the rest is history. The two are now inseparable, a blessing for the baby and also for her husband and herself.

But not all are privileged to adopt in such a dramatic way. Approval from spouses, family members, even friends is often required and women who yearn to be mothers are denied this because of narrow-mindedness. 

Children hope in vain to be adopted into loving homes and look at happy families with envy. Even the most caring orphanage is no home to a child who longs to belong. Those who do adopt prefer the good-looking, fair, boy children and disabled children generally get left behind.

Mother Teresa used to say, “We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love”. Every ugly duckling is a lovely swan in the making. It just needs the right place to come home to. May that home be yours.