The Navy has gained its very first female four-star admiral.  Her name is Michelle Janine Howard and she was promoted, on Tuesday to the Navy's highest rank.  There was a ceremony held at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at the Arlington National Cemetary, in Arlington Va. 

     Michelle will serve as the vice chief of naval operations.  This will make her the No. 2 admiral in the Navy behind Adm. Jonathan Greenert who is the chief of naval operations. 

     Ms. Howard has performed duties in the US Navy for the past thirty-two years.  She graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1982.  She is historically, also the first African-American female to command a Navy ship. 

WE SALUTE YOU MICHELLE JANINE HOWARD!!!!!

        In 2014 adopting a child who needs a safe-haven is glorified but does physical safety guarantee mental safety?  I would say not.  As an individual who was adopted as a child as a means of providing me with security I can honestly say adoption could possibly make things worse. 

         In the 1980’s being legally claimed as another person’s child always left people questioning why myself and my siblings didn’t fit in.  We used to make up stories to tell others if they happened to ask us why we did not all share the same resemblances.  “Uhhhhhh… our mom and dad look really old because they had us at older ages”, or “two of us are the same age and not twins because our dad cheated on our mom”, we’d say.  Bottom line is we felt the need to hide our fosterage because we had been conditioned to believe it was a huge negative for us.  We felt this way because the neighborhood kids used to remind us every time we stepped out the front door by heckling us with songs.  Family members used to refer to us as “my sister’s foster kids” long after we were made permanent members of the family. 

        So I’m adopted, that means I have double the amount of family, right?  Wrong.  What happens when neither of those families stays involved in your life?  Are you un-adopted?  Adoption means acceptance, enactment, and ratification. Say you lose your job, you need a shoulder to cry on and you have no one to depend upon. Are you still adopted at that point?  What if you have no family members there for the birth of your child? Is your adoption then placed on hold? 

        Children who are adopted are at risk of being re-relinquished and left to then become abandoned adults.  Abandonment is the opposite of adoption and means deserted, discarded, eliminated, cast aside, and dissipated.  So is adoption still a glorified occurrence?  It is if the family that takes you permanently is ready for the commitment otherwise it leaves a person with access to no family at all, biological or not.