Yesterday in the mail, I received my summer 2007 copy of "Buckner Today", so I obligingly flipped through the pages. The photo of a beautiful baby caught my eye probably because it was accompanied by the words Buckner Orphan Writes Her Story.

The beautiful baby in the photo was a girl, just five months old, sitting up, and smiling. The story went on to say that, she was determined to be unadoptable at the time because she had an eye with a deformity. Since no family would consider adopting such a defective child, she was sent to live her entire life at Buckner’s Orphanage with 600 brothers and sisters.

Surprising, she says that her life there was wonderful and she never lacked for love, despite not having actual parents. The orphanage took responsibility for correcting her eye surgically. She grew up with private piano lessons, swimming classes, and rigorous academic programs in a Christian environment.

The baby in the photo is currently a 67-year-old woman, named Frances Jones who has written a book about her life growing up as a permanent orphan. The book is titled, “Orphan Journey: Memoirs of Growing up in Buckner Orphans Home.”

Apparently, she was so happy living at the orphanage that when a family offered to adopt her at age 14, she declined their offer. The story says that she was quite popular there, it was the only home she had ever known, and she didn’t want to leave. She allowed the family to adopt her after she turned 18. She went on to adopt two children herself, one from Buckner.

Like many of you, I heard stories when I was growing up about "the good old days." Well, this is one issue that I’m certainly happy not to be a part of the "good old days." Back when a beautiful infant was considered not adoptable over an eye deformity.

Because last year, I would have applied to adopt her without a second thought and probably 50 other families would have as well. How can I be so certain, because super dad and I have applied for numerous special needs children where another forever family was chosen instead of us. Children we’ve applied for in the last few years included infants with cystic fibrosis, retinoblastoma, drug and alcohol exposed, and Apert syndrome.

Another thing I like about this woman and her story is the fact that she is willing to look at all the positive aspects of her childhood and then tell about what a wonderful life she had. She could have instead, bemoaned the terrible society that would not own her, and discarded her as unacceptable. She could have then gone on to lead an angry life, as we have seen many an older adoptee do, when turning 18.


Related topics:
Read more on adoptive parenting.
Adopting Special Needs Children
Free (No Cost) Adoption
Hoping to adopt?
Photo Credit: Buckner Today, Summer 2007