Can adoption be an act of faith after the greatest loss imaginable?
The Greatest Loss of All Suddenly to be without a child in the house was “surreal,” Lele says, especially with so many reminders of Hannah around. “She sat in that high chair. She drank from that sippy cup.” These families remember the loved ones who gathered around them, as well as the spiritual guidance and psychological counseling that helped them survive the most terrible time in their lives. Yet even in the midst of the “craziness, grief, and pain,” they began to find a way out of their despair. As Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was killed at Columbine High School in 1999, says, “You can’t stay in that state of devastation.” The Mausers set up a scholarship fund and web site to honor Daniel, and Tom became a spokesperson for gun control. And a month after Daniel’s death, Tom and his wife Linda, herself adopted, began to discuss adoption. They would ultimately adopt their daughter Madeline in China. Saving the Family John Bonafide, another bereaved father, says the very night in 1997
