Summer 2003-Spring 2020
SARS. COVID-19. Vivianna’s life right now is bookended by these deadly diseases. 2003 was the year she joined our family. 2020 is her senior year in high school. Both events should be happy ones, filled with preparation and celebration. Yet, doubt and lack of control clouded her adoption process and now overshadows her senior year. In the spring of 2003 John and I anxiously awaited news of the baby in China who would be our daughter. We had waited a year and were expecting to be “next in line” to get the paperwork telling us we were “matched” with a baby girl. I wrote daily in a journal about our wait and throughout March and April the worry about SARS in China dominated my thoughts. I held off writing about SARS because I prayed it would soon go away. On April 25, 2003, I wrote about my fears. “This is supposed to be a time of joyous anticipation and excitement for us, but it has become clouded by uncertainty and fear. Please let us be able to travel to get our daughter!” The...