!68Chosen2

My niece and her mom (my sister) picked up Anastasia Nicole, a twenty month old Russian orphan, in March of 1999 in Moscow. This latest addition to our family is a joy and there is no question that Nikki and we are really the luckiest people in the world. This poem was inspired from one on a similar theme written by an unknown poet of the 19th C. I certainly hope that my version will someday help Nikki understand how very important she is to us. I was able to visit Russia (the land of my father’s birth) in 1991 to see Loosestrife in bloom on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The Chosen Child

                    Once there were two Women,
                        Who never knew each other;
                    One you do not remember,
                        The other you call Mother.
                    Two separate and distant Lives,
                        Were shaped to make yours one;
                    The First became your guiding Star,
                        The Other’d be your Sun.
                    The First would deed the Gift of Life,
                        The Second taught you to live it;
                    The First gave you a Need for Love,
                        The Second was there to give it.
                    One gave you a Nationality,
                        The Other gave you a Name;
                    One gave you the Seed of Talent,
                        The Other gave you an Aim.
                    One gave you Emotions,
                        The Other would calm your Fears;
                    One saw you smile your very first,
                        The Other dried your Tears.
                    Although one had to give you up,
                        It was all that she could do;
                    The Other prayed to have a Child,
                        God led her straight to you.
                    And now you ask me, sad with Tears,
                        The age-old Question through the Years:
                    Heredity or Environment,
                        Which are you the Product of?
                    Both, my dearest Nikki, both…
                        Just two different Kinds of Love;
                    So, be happy dearest Nikki,
                        Indeed, you should rejoice;
                    That both your loving Mothers,
                        Could make a loving Choice!

Addendum

I thought you might like to see what Nikki looks like today, eighteen months after her arrival in the United States.

and here is Nikki in her 6th Grade graduation performance from Atlantic Highlands Elementary School.

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