I grew up in Tennessee and I’d often hear people say, “Blood is thicker than water.” But as someone who had been adopted, I sort of took on the mantra that “Love is also thicker than blood.”
Perhaps because I was adopted, my sense of family was always as widened — almost as though “family” was those I learned to love and those who loved and nurtured me, especially my church family.
Recently, CNEWA spoke with a donor who shared that wide sense of family in his support for our work and mission. Malcolm Donalson, professor emeritus of the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science, had this to say about his own very personal experience with his family:
That CNEWA carries an outstanding credential, as a relief organization associated with the Holy Father, there can be no doubt. Certainly, to participate in CNEWA‘s programs for children in the Middle East is a blessing and can have long-lasting, positive consequences. In my own experience, assisting children in Ethiopia through CNEWA was an inspiration to take the further step and adopt children from overseas. When I lost one of my biological children in an auto accident, having considered adoption previously led to my active pursuit of an adoption from India. My acquaintance with other adoptive parents during the process easily lead to a second adoption, in this case, from China. Without question, the adoptions of my two daughters were some of the signal events of a lifetime. Now in their 20’s, they have been nothing but blessings to one another and to our family. I will forever be grateful to CNEWA for the opportunities it has afforded me, including the inspiration to adopt two of my children.
Our president, Msgr. John E. Kozar, often likes to refer to the work we do — whether that’s in the field overseas or here in the United States meeting with friends and supporters — as a matter of caring for our one “CNEWA family.” We’re grateful to consider Malcolm Donalson and his own as part of that big family.
If you’d like to support our children-in-need programs, and be a part of the CNEWA family, you can do so by visiting this link. Thank you!