In his own words--an older adopted boy writes

My Dear Husband does the taxes.  My contributions are 1) helping him find and collect all the necessary papers, and 2) entering in the donations, since we itemize things we give away.  This year while we were figuring out which of the donations to adoptions were tax-deductible, I re-discovered Shen--another older boy who had been in the same dreadful situation as Sebastian and Joseph, about to age out of the orphanage.  Except Shen was in China, where orphans are emancipated at the even earlier age of 14.   Many people donated to his adoption fund and spread his name and face around the blogsphere, and his family found him right before it was too late.

Shen is now in the US, and goes by the name Colin.  His adoptive parents just this Easter returned from adopting their third and fourth boys from China!  So I was very glad to be reminded of this boy, and to see how his family's story has progressed in such a beautiful way.

As I went through his mom's blog, I saw that he too has started a blog, as a way to share his own experiences as an older adoptee, in the hopes that he might help other families and kids.  This post, which he guest wrote for another adoption advocate's blog, was so special to read:

I often felt alone over these years.  No one was there to help me.  No one to fight for me; to defend me. I had to lean on myself and be smarter than the rest.   Now I think back to that time and I realize that I was not alone.  Because God was always with me.  When my birthmom placed me in the Hallway as a baby,  He allowed my foster Mom to find me behind a stairwell.  He was protecting me and did not let me die.  When I lived in the orphanage,  he kept me safe when others tried to hurt me.  Then, when my time to be adopted was almost gone (14),  He brought my new family from America to me.  All those years,  He was working out the details of my life to bring me here to be a Rylands. 

I don't know why God chose him to be adopted.  Or Sebastian.  Or whether or not Joseph will have a family, and why not.  But I agree with Colin that God is always with all of them, and I pray that they will find peace, love, joy, purpose--whether it is within the bounds of a traditional family or not.

But I am praying most that they do find families.