Crackers to Donuts | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Crackers to Donuts | Previous Challenge Entry
By John Custer
08/17/20
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When we heard that children from South Korea and Japan were available for adoption we were interested. We had two biological children and wanted to provide a home for a child from another nationality so we initiated the paperwork.

Visiting the UN building, the Korean Embassy and China Town in New York enhanced our interest in a country other than our own.

In the ensuing months we completed many forms and interviews, wrote many checks, and spent hours waiting for phone calls and correspondence. Finally, we received the call that our baby girl was to arrive at the Chicago International Airport on December 20th, Christmas week. Could it really be happening? Could any Christmas present top this?

We drove from Ohio to Chicago and arrived early and met other families who were also receiving their adopted children. The social worker gathered us all together, had us sign the final papers, then took us as a group to the gate where the children would disembark. The excitement was palpable! Cameras were ready and everyone was vying for a good position.

We were not allowed on the plane but an airport Santa Clause was allowed. Several minutes later he came off of the airplane carrying a baby with a name on her knitted cap. Then he said, “I have a baby for the Custers,” and handed the baby to my wife. We smiled but it was distorted because of the tears streaming down our cheeks uncontrolled. So much work had gone into the adoption and now my wife finally was holding our beautiful new daughter.

Our daughter was holding a cracker that she held all the way from South Korea. After we got home we took the cracker and put it with her baby stuff and put her to bed.

At age four our daughter asked for a “consultation” with her doctor. We smiled because we doubted that she even knew what the word meant, even though she used it correctly. She was fascinated with words, all words that she learned after eleven months old.

At about the age six we asked her if she wanted to see the papers about her. As she was going through them, she came across the cracker that we had saved. She immediately ate it. We were shocked, then smiled because she was now a typical little girl.

In Junior High she competed in Gymnastics and we discovered that she was quite athletic. Each time she received an award we smiled because we were proud of her accomplishments.

Then she went to nursing school and we smiled when she graduated because we knew she would be a good compassionate nurse….and she was.

We smiled with her when she presented us with two grandchildren, a boy and a girl. We were happy for her.

Last Saturday her car pulled into our drive and she got out and came to our door with three cups of coffee and some pastries. I opened the door and she said, “I came to have coffee and donuts with you guys?” I smiled because she wanted to be with us.

The eleven-month old baby that we received many years ago had grown into a loving mother, wife, nurse and daughter. We love to spend time with her as we did Saturday. She has brought us many smiles, each for a different reason.

Now that we are older, we are experiencing her care for us, rather than our care for her. “Dad, I ordered something for you. Look for it in the mail. Mom, can you guys meet us at Pancho’s for tacos?”

Looking back across the years the smiles represent the various steps of growth that we have seen in our daughter. She has grown from an infant to an adult. When I think of her, it always brings a smile.

Non-fiction

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