The Starfish Saver

January 2, 2009

During my morning routine of reading blogs and drinking diet coke, I came across this precious poem at Renee Garcia's blog http://www.myspecialks.com/. Renee is the mother of 4 children under 7, one of whom has down syndrome and is in remission from leukemia. Her husband is serving our country and is gone for 18-20 months at a time while she tackles her 4 children and their myriad needs. And because she is amazing/crazy, they have decided to add a child to their family. They are adopting a little girl with down syndrome from Eastern Europe. There, a child with down's will be institutionalized at age 5 and will stay there until their death. As the Garcia's have gotten pretty good at parenting one beautiful child with down's, they've decided to add another. The little girl they will call Kellsey is being saved by them. And their lives will inevitably be bettered by hers.

Adoption has always been something that is on my heart and only time will tell if God will lead my future husband and I to this way of growing our family. But scripture says over and over to 'care for orphans'. I am here because my me-maw chose to adopt into her heart one strawberry blonde child in the late 60's. And I should only be so lucky to do the same one day. I don't know why, but this poem made me think of the parable of the lost sheep. God sees each and every one of us, and one by one, he cares for us all. Mother Teresa said 'if you can't feed a hundred people, well, just feed one.' While I'd love to have 100 babies, maybe one day, God will lead me to just the right one (or two or three or four).

The Starfish Saver

As I walked along the seashore

This young boy greeted me.

He was tossing stranded starfish

Back to the deep blue sea.

I said "Tell me why you bother,

Why you waste your time this way.

There's a million stranded starfish

Does it matter, anyway?"

And he said, "It matters to this one.

It deserves a chance to grow.

It matters to this one.

I can't save them all I know.

But it matters to this one,

I'll return it to the sea.

It matters to this one,

And it matters to me."

I walked into an orphanage,

A young woman greeted me.

She was adopting a little girl,

She was excited, I could see.

I said, "Tell me why you bother,

Why you waste your time this way.

She's only one of thousands,

Does it matter anyway?"

And she said, "It matters to this one.

She deserves a chance to grow.

It matters to this one.

I can't save them all I know.

But it matters to this one,

I'll help her be what she can be.

It matters to this one,

And it matters to me."