When I really think about it, hoping to adopt a child out of foster care is such a weird situation - especially when the parents are good parents at least some of the time.
Meeting with Elmer's parents and seeing that they are good with him, and love him, brings some interesting thoughts to mind. Hoping to adopt him is, in essence, hoping that they will lose their son. Not that I think they should not lose their rights. Their history (and even current actions) indicate that there is almost certainly no way they would be able to parent Elmer appropriately and safely 24/7. But there are times, like in watching them with Elmer at the park, that it is obvious that they do love him and that they even have the potential to be good parents to him if they could ever break free from all of the demons that seem to have haunted them for many many years.
So it makes me really sad that the only way for his adoption to happen is for these parents, that do obviously love their child, to lose their rights to him. And for Elmer to lose the life of being raised by his biological parents.
Adoption is a good thing. It's even a joyous thing. But we can't forget that behind the joy, lies tremendous loss for both the parents (whether they voluntarily give up their rights or their rights are taken away) and for the child.
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