Since I was very young, I have collected poems and sayings that have touched me in some way. Recently, while cleaning out my desk to make way for some crafting that I want to do, I discovered a booklet of sayings that I have had since I was in high school and in between the pages I found most of them.

While going through my mother's files the other day, I discovered a
notebook of my Grandmother's that was filled with page after page of poetry and sayings and her own writings that moved her in a similar fashion. ( I guess it's in the genes.) Anyway, I am going to begin to share some of these.

My maternal grandmother, Lois, was 12 years of age when she was adopted by a childless couple in an adoption arranged by her mother who would soon die from the complications of tuberculosis. Her father had already died a year earlier.

When I discovered the notebook of hers that is full of poems cut out and pasted onto lined paper, I found, in a blank space on one page, a line, handwritten by Grandma that simply states:

An adopted child who has found a good home has been smiled upon by God.

And then, for the fun of it, and for my children, nieces and nephews who either have a two year old or will have a two year old, I offer this poem from the next page in her book.

TWO YEAR OLD
He finds a pencil and marks on the walls,
He climbs on the piano, and then he falls.
He eats the garbage and plays in the ink,
He spills the milk he declines to drink.
He crawls in the coalbin and plays it's bed.
He refuses to bathe and cries instead.
In short, he wishes to do what he wishes,
He breaks your heart as well as your dishes.
But all is forgiven, all is bliss,
When he comes and gives you a large wet kiss.
by Nancy Moor Kelsey