I’m an adoption t-shirt junkie.

Although my closet used to be filled with the cute and stylish clothes of a girl who cared whether or not she looked like an adult, now, Super-Spouse’s one-box-in-one-box-out rule has caused me to bring more adoption t-shirts IN … and a whole lot of cute clothes that just sit on my shelf begging to be worn on that rare day when I both shower AND brush my hair OUT.

Every time my neighbor’s second cousin’s former high school teacher pursues adoption, my first question is where I can buy the family’s t-shirt. (Because let’s be honest, you’re not a bonafide adoptive family unless you’ve designed and sold t-shirts to fund your $40,000 adventure ... only to realize that the $87 profit you earned after PAYING for the design and shipping of such t-shirts was not worth the 27 hours and 46 trips to the post office for your effort. But thank you, t-shirt making companies, for giving me false hope that my entire adoption might be paid off by appealing to the fashion sense of my five friends. I try to keep false hope alive in the twinkling and naïve eyes of adoptive families by being their No. 1 t-shirt-purchasing fan.)

So when I prepared to pick up our host child in Atlanta three weeks ago, my biggest pre-pick-up concern was not whether or not the child would like me (I am somewhat experienced these days at dealing with boys who aren’t my biggest fans at some point of every week); it was which t-shirt of my prized collection I should don for the occasion. 

THIS beauty, which was actually designed years ago by my bestie for an adoptive family I never even knew, was the winner.

And friends, after three weeks hosting a superhero-in-no-more waiting in our home, I am more convinced than EVER that IT TAKES A VILLAGE to raise a child. And it takes a COMMUNITY to change the story for an orphan.