A Trip to New Zealand..

Deciding to adopt a baby is like making a journey to New Zealand.

You have heard that it is a wonderful place, you've read the guide
books and feel certain you are ready to go. Everyone you know has
traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with
occasional rough landings but you can look forward to being pampered
on the trip.

So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to
New Zealand. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for
New Zealand. It seems there is no seat for you! You will have to
wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful
trip, you wait, and wait, and wait....

Flights to New Zealand continue to come and go. And come and go.
People say silly things like, "Relax! Be patient! You will get on
a flight soon enough." Other people actually get on the plane and
then cancel their trip, to which you cry, "That's not fair!" After
a long time, the ticket agent tells you, "I'm sorry, but we are not
going to be able to get you on a plane to New Zealand. Perhaps you
should think about going by boat."

"BY BOAT?" You exclaim. "Going by boat will take forever. Not
many people go that way - the journey is very uncertain and you
never know where you will end up. It is also very expensive. I
really had my heart set on going by plane."

So you go home and think about not going to New Zealand at all. You
wonder if New Zealand will be as beautiful if you approach it by
sea, rather than by air. But you have long dreamt of this wonderful
place, and so finally you decide to travel by boat. It is a long
and uncomfortable journey of many months and over many rough seas.
Just a few people are on board. You wonder if you will ever see New
Zealand.

Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth from New Zealand
two or three times, marveling about each trip.

One glorious day, the boat finally docks in New Zealand. It is more
exquisite than you had ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by
the months, even years spent on a rough sea. You have made
wonderful and close friends during your long voyage and you find
yourself comparing stories with others who have also traveled by sea
rather than air. People continue to fly to New Zealand as often as
they were, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice.
Some say things like, "Oh, be glad you didn't fly. My flight was
awful, it was really uncomfortable. Traveling by sea must be so
easy!"

You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to New
Zealand. Still you know that you have a special appreciation of New
Zealand. You realize that the beauty of New Zealand is not in the
way you get there, but in the place itself.