There are times when adoption feels very much like a rescue. Rescue of a life, a spirit, a soul. I don't walk around feeling like Wonder Woman or anything silly like that. But, I have to admit that I like the way it feels kowing that I have, personally, interrupted the trajectory of the lives of two children in a way that has been positive and rewarding. That feeling comes over me at the most unexpected times. At the beach. At the park. During a school program or play. At a music recital. At the dinner table. At the Smithsonian, and the Kennedy Center, and the water park. Even after the time out or other punishment has expired and the lesson has been learned--again.

Due to a biological quirk of fate, my biological son's life, barring any catastrophic turn of events, was destined to be a rich, multi-dimensional, fulfilling, and loving experience--with a few bumps and bruises along the way. Not necessarily so for my daughters. That same quirk of biological fate initially seemed to destine them to a life of hard knocks, with a few lucky breaks along the way.

The girls had a pretty rough start in life and after a very stable placement in one foster home, their circumstances were slated to change dramatically before they were identified as a potential match for us. Their wonderful foster mother, who had been fostering professionally for decades, was "retiring" and the girls were getting older. Those two events were coming together to put them on the road to moving from one foster home to another all the while becoming harder and harder to adopt because they were getting older. It is possible that their lives could have gone just fine, but if you know anything about the foster care system in most jurisdictions, then you know the outlook was not particularly encouraging for the girls.

So, I like the fact that my husband, my son, and I all arrived on the scene like gangbusters just in the nick of time to provide the girls with permanent love and stability. We wanted them, they needed us, and the stars were aligned for it to all happen. We have all made a difference in one another's lives. It's kinda nice when things just work out that way.