the ache.

This post isn't about one child.
It isn't even really about me.
It's about people all over the world, joined together by a pain, by a longing, an aching.

People who have loved children unconditionally, children who were not theirs.
Children who were not theirs, but who felt like theirs.
Who they chose to love like they were theirs, who they chose to love like this wasn't a short term thing.
Even though they were warned over and over not to do it.

You see, though we come from different countries, though we speak different languages - we ache the same.
We ache for children who are no longer ours.

Maybe we're still in their lives, maybe we're not.
Maybe we're happy with the life they have now, maybe we're not.
Each of our situations are different, but they hurt the same.

But here's the interesting thing, it's an ache we wouldn't give up.
An ache we wouldn't give away.
Because what that child got in return, well that's worth the pain.

Learning to attach.
Knowing they were loved.
Being held when they cried, being fed when they were hungry.
Feeling safe.

Well we wouldn't give that up for anything.

And so we ache.
Somedays it's just a dull throb.
Other days it's a stabbing pain we can hardly breathe through.
But it's worth it.
And so we'll go on aching.
And we'll go on loving.
And we'll ache again.