Saturday, February 5, 2011

Super Bowl versus Adoption: Which is More Important?

In a profile of 4 men honored for never missing a Super Bowl, this little tidbit:
Attending all 44 games is an amazing feat, but what these guys have overcome and given up to get to the Super Bowl is perhaps more spectacular.

It’s one thing to pass up a party or miss a wedding, anniversary or even a funeral, but Jacobson, 71, of San Francisco, tells the tale of giving up the chance to adopt a child.

Jacobson and his wife were participating in an open adoption in the 1970s and he says the birth mother’s only prerequisite was that the adoptive parents be present for the birth of the baby. The problem was that the baby was due on Super Bowl weekend.

“I said it’s no problem,” he recalls. “I’ll take the red-eye (flight), watch the game and take the red-eye back. That was fine with my wife, but it wasn’t with the mother.”

Because of Larry’s growing obsession, he and his wife passed on that adoption but later adopted two biological sisters, neither of which knew until recently the story of the abandoned adoption.

“My daughter said she was glad about the Super Bowl,” Jacobson says. “If we’d gotten that child, we wouldn’t have gotten our daughters. So they think the Super Bowl is a good thing.”
Gee, what a sweet "meant to be" story to share with the daughters whose adoptions didn't interfere with a Super Bowl.

And this is in a magazine called American Profiles, describing itself as a "magazine that celebrates hometown American life. It's a heartfelt reminder of what's good about who we are."  Really?  Really.

7 comments:

everythingismeowsome said...

Ick. That's all I can think of to say.

Anonymous said...

I think this is one case where adoption has nothing to do with the situation. I'd bet anything that this man would have missed the birth of a biological child to be at the Superbowl. Sometimes making *everything* about adoption defeats the goal of changing the general perception and culture of adoption.

Dawn said...

I LOVE football but my husband would no longer be my husband if he put the superbowl ahead of a birth/adoption or any other important life event in our life or our child's. But I married a man whose priorities are in order:) I second the previous poster's "Ick"

Gretchen said...

Wow.

No other words.

Just wow.

Robin said...

This story sickens me because it shows that adopted children are interchangeable. No one can say for sure whether he would have missed the game for the birth of his biological child, but I am certain he would not have given up a bio-child if s/he had been born at an inconvenient time. But, of course, adopted kids are exactly the same as bio-kids. Yeah, right!

Reena said...

What Anonymous said--

I do know of a man who missed the birth of child because he wasn't going to miss the Super Bowl. I have no idea if they are still married or not.

Definitely NOT husband material by my standards-- but to each her own.

Louise said...

My biological dad was out playing golf when I was born. Would he have given up that game to see if his wife in labor had progressed? Naaa...he just came up to the hospital to see me when the game was over.
Is the word spelled..."Schmuck"?