One thing that my cousin Patty told me was that when she visited Grandpa the week before, she had asked him about the photo that I had sent of Franklin (that was on his table with lots of get-well cards). Even though he had moments when he was confused, at other times he was very lucid. He knew that we were adopting Franklin and talked about it briefly with Patty. It is such a small thing, but I guess it made me happy to know that Grandpa knew that Franklin was going to be part of our family.
The impact of losing Grandpa and listening to everyone describe him also prompted me to take a couple more personal steps in trying to make a positive contribution to others, as Grandpa did throughout his lifetime. On Friday, I found a mentoring program that I am hoping will work out where I will serve as a mentor to a high-school aged girl living in foster care in the Hartford area. I've still got a bunch to learn to see if this is a commitment that I am able to make right now. In any case, I'm trying to stop simply thinking about things I could do, and taking the first steps in doing them.
Rick and I also decided to sponsor another child in Guatemala (in addition to Faiz from Indonesia who we've sponsored for years) and I am really excited to do this through CCI (Celebrate Children International) which is Sue Hedberg's agency. Sue has been an amazing resource for me and if it would have been possible, I would have chosen CCI as our adoption agency. But, Franklin is represented by a A Field of Dreams (AFOD) and that dictated our choice. Anyway, CCI has a sponsorship program specifically to support the orphans of Guatemala who will NOT be adopted because of their legal status or their medical conditions. We selected a young girl named Emiliana Carolina Giron. I will share more information about her soon. We should actually be able to visit her when we go to Guatemala if time allows. The contact from CCI is actually going to Guatemala next week to purchase and deliver holiday gifts for their sponsored children. So, we came in just in time to be able to support Emiliana before the holidays. She is a beautiful, bright-eyed girl who apparently has learning disabilities and what sounds like ADD. I hope we can make a tiny positive impact on her life.
The last thing to note before going to bed is that I'm suddenly feeling really anxious to re-learn Spanish. A course or a tutor is on my "to do" list for next week. Also on that list is the decision to make formal plans to go visit Franklin. Now that will be something good to write about. All for now!!
