Alive and Kicking

Praise God, the colonoscopy was an "all clear". Apparently my colon is "twisty", which could account for most or all of the GI issues. And I've been able to eek a few grains back into my diet without going overboard, and I feel pretty good.

I feel really good about the "not having cancer" part, and pretty good with a low-grain diet. I felt better when I was grain-free, but it is realllllly hard to keep that up. Gluten-free would be one thing; there are all kinds of gluten-free options out there. But rice seems to be an even bigger problem than wheat for me, so rice flour and other wheat-free products don't really help.

Anyway, it's nice to know that I probably do not have any disease currently on track to rot me.

I had the chance to talk with a colleague this week who adopted 3 bi-racial kiddos in the early 90s. It was an interesting conversation on many levels, but one thing he said in particular has really stuck in my head. He told me that when he and his wife were going through the application process, the case worker cautioned them against believing that they were adopting these kids as an act of service or charity. She reminded them that if they think that adoption is something you can do "for" the kids, they would crash and burn. If your motives are not at least 90% selfish, she said, you may be heading for regret. He noted that he thought that was good advice for anyone who wanted to be a parent, whether by adoption or childbirth.

Les and I talked about that last night, and he disagreed with the notion that effective and compassionate parents cannot have mixed motives. I reminded him that charity can only go so far, especially when you've broken up the umpteenth cat-fight between your kids or your teenager calls from the police station. We wondered aloud together how selfish our adoption inclinations might be, and whether they need to be stronger.

Anyway, that is the update on the musings and screenings of my internal (and very internal life).