Sealey's Legacy

This is not the post I ever wanted to be writing, but here I am anyway.

We were too late.

Sealey just couldn't hang on any longer, and sadly he passed away before we could bring him home.

Sealey, who I advocated for for years, who we finally realized was our son, took his last breath alone, in an institution, not knowing how much he was loved.

Sealey.

We only knew him in pictures, but in my mind I have held him, and fed him, rocked him and comforted him, bathed him and wrapped him in a big fluffy towel.

He was - he is - my son.

I won't write here my feelings about what should have been, what kind of life he could have led - I'll save that for another day.

Today - today I want to celebrate the miracle that Sealey has created.

If you know our story, you know we never intended to adopt - if you don't know our story, you can go HERE to read it.

So - what next ?

When we first started the adoption process, we did discuss the possibility of not bringing Sealey home, for one reason or another.  Something as simple as a paperwork mix up in his country could have rendered him unadoptable - so we talked about whether we would go ahead and adopt someone else.

The answer was yes.

So - when we heard the news, we knew what we would do.

How do you pick a child, when it means NOT picking all of the others ??

It was quite the process.

I looked at every single boy between the ages of 6 and 14 listed on Reece's Rainbow as being available for adoption.

I chose 15 boys who I thought were possibilities.

I saved their pictures, and then showed them to my husband and son.

Separately, they looked at the photos, and each chose 5 boys who they thought could be son and brother.

I then compared their lists - and amazingly, THREE boys were on both lists !

This led to a long discussion about each of the 3 - and, eventually, we did it.

We chose our new son.

We have even seen a video of him HERE !!

"Vijay" is 10 years old - a little younger than Sealey - but he is living in a similar institution.  

Vijay also has cerebral palsy, but it doesn't look like he has deteriorated as much as Sealey did - yet.

Hopefully, by the end of the summer, he will be home with us, and can start getting all the therapies, medical care, and education that he so desperately needs !!!

We never chose to adopt Sealey - HE chose us.

Thanks to Sealey - WE now choose Vijay.

Thank you, Sealey.

Fly high, son.