I know that I am not a superhero. I know that I can’t “adopt them all” and I know that I can’t “change the world”. Some days I feel like I need that tattooed on my fore head. If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me “You can’t save the world,” I wouldn’t have near as much adoption debt.

My quote today is by Gandhi. Gandhi has been quoted as saying, “Practically anything you do will be insignificant, but it is important that you do it.” I love that a man who did so much good in his life, was humble enough to make a statement like that. Although his accomplishments and life were anything but insignificant, he acknowledged that in the grand scheme of life on Earth, the actions of any one person will not make much of a difference.

And yet, it is important that we do it. It is important that we try. From small changes come big changes. Small steps may feel small, but when you turn around, you can be surprised at how far you have come. If you put a whole bunch of “insignificant” actions together, great results are possible.

This is how I feel about my life. I know that I can’t save the world (I have been told it enough times that I promise, I know.) I know that in the grand scheme of the sheer overwhelming number of orphans on this earth today that the six children that Josh and I have made a forever part of our family has not made much of a difference. In that same mind set, the one or two children that my friends have adopted, or even the 18 children that another friend has adopted, has not made much of a difference. There are still millions of orphans.

But on the small scale, it does make a difference. Every child’s life is precious. Every child deserves a family and a home. Every child who has gone from an orphan to a cherished member of a family is a miracle. So even just one child who finds a forever family out of millions, matters.

I know that I cannot change the world, and educate the outrageous number of people who are still racist in the United States in 2006. But maybe, seeing and interacting with my family has softened the hearts of some. Maybe my family will make a small difference in the attitudes and mindsets of a few.

I know I can’t convince every family out there that they can adopt. That maybe they even should adopt. That they could love a child born to someone else as much as they could love a child born to them. That they could love a child of a different race than them as much as they could love a child that looks like them. That adoption is an amazing blessing and that there is a huge need for families to open their hearts to children who are alone in this life. That if they just stopped saying why they couldn't, they just might find out that they could. But maybe, by the family I have and the writing I do, I can influence a few.

I am not trying to do any huge, grand feat that will change the Earth. But I do hope that by the small, insignificant things that my family does, that maybe we can make some small steps in the world around us towards the better.