The Many Stars that Guide Us: Maybe someday

The Many Stars that Guide Us: Maybe someday: The first time I saw Martian Child was in the movie theater. It came out 2 days after my birthday. I had two young foster children at home,...

The Many Stars that Guide Us is one of my favorite blogs. It's the blog of a single mother whose adopted child is a boy with Reactive Attachment Disorder. Every post is simultaneously heartbreaking and amazing. Sarah is utterly devoted to her son, and endures behavior one would expect from hardened criminals. She's honest, even when it isn't pretty, and loves, even when it doesn't feel good.

In the post linked above, she discusses one of my favorite movies, Martian Child, and how her son reacted to both it and the short pro-adoption spiel attached to it. It's a rare moment of beauty in his life and attitude, made all the more exceptional by the posts surrounding it.

I like reading her blog because it seems to me that God must feel like she does, a lot of the time. He loves children that will openly say they hate Him, is patient with those who react violently to His ministrations, and persistently, gently, repeatedly tells them that He loves them in spite of all the horrible things they do.

Sarah will tell you she's no saint, but it's not difficult at all to see the Divine spark within her.

I also find myself wondering, in the spirit of this blog, how many times I've passed by someone just like her and not even noticed the incredible strength of a parent struggling to hold it together?  How many out of control children have I clucked my tongue about, without considering that maybe there are extenuating circumstances?  I've come a long way from the brash judgments of my twenties and early thirties, but there is still plenty of room for me to learn to give people some space.