A whole other world? November 15th

     There is nothing like coming through customs on arrival in your country of citizenship. It is simply an easy process,  there are hardly any questions or concerns rather it is usually a bit of back and forth of why we live in England, how it is or isn’t better, then a stamp on the paperwork and a hardy welcome back to the States. This is the same format we followed again on Tuesday at Detroit’s Wayne County Airport when first entering back into the USA. It’s been nearly two since we tread on this soil and while it seems as though nothing has changed I think that we have. Reminds me a bit of when you look up at a tall structure and it totally looks as though it’s moving even though it is clearly the clouds behind which are exhibiting movement.

     By no stretch of the imagination is the UK a third-world country, so far from it but it is different than the US and we don’t experience the ease of living in the UK as we do when we are back in the US. For us on this trip it is the extreme amount of choice which is available in every shop we walk into, and we can choose from any number of shops that are all open seemingly all the time. It feels weird to stride into a store and feel overwhelmed, if I lived in the darkest, deepest jungle I would expect reverse culture-shock but not coming from our life in Overton.

I decided to drop into Kohl’s (a clothing and home shop) to see if I could find a hoodie, jeans or a pair of basketball shorts. I could, any number of hoodies, so many jeans that I had trouble narrowing down the selection and shorts as cheap as 5 bucks. I actually left with nothing only to walk into Target and after scanning their selection again came away empty-handed, not from lack of choice but from surplus of choice.

     Upon leaving the shopping centre we pulled out onto the 5 lane highway where there was hardly another car or truck, just open roads, unlike what we experience daily with the B3400, Basingstoke traffic and endless roundabouts. Driving here again took us by surprise, the ease, the space, and the expansive car parks which stretch for what seems like miles linking shop after shop.  There are other subtle difference which captured our attention; the vivid colours of the leaves was beautiful, the always pleasing ice machines accompanying any fast-food drink purchase, the indoor mall where I could hear a pin drop as I walked from one store to the other, a far cry from the hectic nature of Festival Place in Bstoke or any other shopping centre in the UK.

     I hope I’m not coming across as whinging or complaining, rather stating what I see as some differences and dealing with the proliferation of choice that drives the American life and economy. In some respects it feels like a whole other world, it obviously isn’t and I did live here for 34 years so it’s not foreign, I think that I have changed more than it.

     This idea of a whole other world is one that is so real to an adopted child or a child placed into care. Can you imagine how much change a little one must go through when moving from one house to the next or transferring into a permanent home?  All that was known, the sounds, smells, tastes, layout of the house, pets, toys etc… it is all different as much as a new home is provided it can never be the same. It is impossible to imagine what wholesale change like that must feel like. It’s the same world but it probably feels like a whole new one for the toddler or infant who has likely struggled to understand the situation they had been.  I think that we must take for granted just how much change little lives go through, as much as we prepare and do our best to guide children through the adaptation of being adopted or fostered it will not fully prepare them for the massive change.

     Rebecca and I look forward to the change, we know it will be like a whole other world to have children who are in our family, ones that we care for daily. In thinking about it I look forward to dropping into shops trying to find clothing items for them, or even just a little toy or trinket which will bring a smile. We have desired this 'new world' in our lives for quite sometime, we also know that for our child/children it will be a whole new world too, one that will be brand new to navigate through.