{"id":4595,"date":"2021-02-01T23:14:16","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T23:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=4595"},"modified":"2024-12-17T20:34:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T20:34:23","slug":"a-family-visit-is-still-in-progress-kids-and-adoption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/a-family-visit-is-still-in-progress-kids-and-adoption\/","title":{"rendered":"A Family Visit is Still in Progress: Kids and Adoption"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday’s visit continues. Granddaughter and I have enjoyed watching cartoons. I’m looking forward to reading her a book from my childhood, plus another from my father’s and mine.<\/p>\n

Our granddaughter’s parents are her ‘real’ parents in practical terms.<\/p>\n

And they adopted her. Which, this family being the way we are, means that our granddaughter has more than the conventional two sets of grandparents.<\/p>\n

I don’t mind, partly because I don’t see family relationships as a zero-sum thing.<\/p>\n

When we had our second child, I didn’t assume that number-one and number-two daughter would each have half a father.<\/p>\n

At any rate, I didn’t fear for our third child, who would \u2014 if I made zero-sum assumptions, which I didn’t \u2014 suffer from being stuck with a mere third of a father.<\/p>\n

The point I’m trying to make is that zero-sum assumptions don’t apply to family relationships. Resource allocation? Sometimes but not always.<\/p>\n

But our kids didn’t have a fractionalized father. “Fractionalized???” Never mind.<\/p>\n

Then our number three child died, early in the pregnancy. That was not a happy experience. Neither was the death of our sixth child. (October 9, 2016 <\/a>)<\/p>\n

On the ‘up’ side, we have been and are blessed with four surviving children.<\/p>\n

And one grandchild.<\/p>\n

<\/a>A Brief, Succinct, Terse and Very Short Look at Family and Children<\/h4>\n

\"Streaming<\/a>It’s been a while since I talked about what the Church says about family and children.<\/p>\n

Books could be and have been written on the subject. But I’m squeezing writing this post into the second and last day of a family visit.<\/p>\n

So, briefly: marriage and having kids is a good thing. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2366-2379)<\/p>\n

Not getting married is a good thing.<\/p>\n

I’ve touched on vocations before. (January 28, 2021<\/a>; August 14, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Sometimes folks who are married can’t, physically, have kids. It’s not the only reason that adopting children is a good idea, but it’s one of them. (Catechism, 2379)<\/p>\n

There’s a lot more to say about all of the above.<\/p>\n

But I’m running out of ‘today.’<\/p>\n

So, briefly: I have enjoyed talks with number-two daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. My granddaughter and I enjoyed reading her great-grandfather’s childhood special book.<\/p>\n

<\/a>And I’ll add links to posts I referred to while writing this:<\/p>\n