Lessons of HOPE from Sesame Place

Photo from 2017 Maccaroni's are on the left side.

Last week, thanks to a generous donation by the H.O.P.E. Foundation, my children and I, along with many other foster and adoptive families, were treated to a day of fun at Sesame Place, a children oriented theme and water park in Oxford Valley, PA. This is the fifth year tickets were provided to allow families the opportunity to enjoy a free day of rides, lunch and games. The founder of H.O.P.E., Brian Lebeau, created the organization in order to help non-profits continue their work, as well as to ensure children who might otherwise miss out on such an experience, are given a chance to have fun. It is his special way of being a part of the lives of children in the foster care system. Being a part of this day always creates in me a mix of emotions, thoughts and realizations. In the end, there are always lessons for me to absorb...

First lesson, everyone has a story to live.  Being people who do not seek or enjoy the spotlight, it is sometimes a challenge in our everyday life for my family to blend in and keep our service lowkey.  But on this day, when we join the fifty or so other foster/adoptive families at Sesame Place, we are treated to a day where our family's passion is the norm. This feeling is amazingly refreshing, as it is my vision that all families would come to see the beauty instead of the pain, and realize the opportunities instead of the hardships, available to those who participate in foster care and adoption. As my children and I were reconnecting with some families, I caught up with a mom who has built her family through foster care and adoption. She was telling me that she has been recently diagnosed with a spinal condition which will slowly paralyze her unless it is corrected through surgery. After the surgery, she will no longer be able to turn her head completely, and so she will lose her license. I listened, as is my way, taking in her story, knowing that no words exist to express my heartbreak at this news. She quickly set me straight however, as her incredible strength was illustrated in her next words to me, "I figure it's OK. I have my older sons to drive me around now. I have to get the surgery, too many children still need my help." Wow!  Perspective, right?

Second lesson, live each moment fully for the joy it offers. Since my family does not presently have a baby in our home, my children were lamenting not having a little person to take on the rides, but that didn't stop them from having fun. You see, all of my kids, four of them teens, have learned through this fostering experience that love is for sharing, and life is for living. We tell people that our gift to give is the love of our family and the sibling joy we can share with others. My teens could have easily taken the free lunch and then called it a day. After all, the Honker Dinger Derby and Cookie Monster Café are clearly for little kids. But my teens were there to spread their smiles and joy.  Look at these faces! Pure fun! Pure childhood! Pure passion for enjoyment! They didn't retreat into their teenage caves, but instead found the inner child that can have fun within the surrounding joy.

Third lesson, we each need to find our gift, then share it with abandon. I always need to remind myself as donations to various organizations and charities are sought out at stores, online and in schools that each person has his or her special talents to share. Money is not my 'talent' to share at this time. Conversely, the man who runs the H.O.P.E. foundation has built up a foundation that is dedicated to lavishly loving families of foster care and adoption with monetary donations. Raising the money to make days like this possible is his passion, his talent, his gift. It is how he loves and cares for children. Loving and caring for children in our home is how my family shares its gifts. I don't imagine that being able to donate money will ever be in my repertoire of talents to share, and that is OK, just as caring for fragile infants in his home might not ever be in Brian's. It is all just fine, as long as each of us realizes what it is we have been given to share, then we share that gift with abandon, never lamenting what it costs us to do so. This, I believe, might be the rightful definition of Social Justice...but that's fodder for another post.