My dream, since I was very young, was to
have children. I knew that there would
be a husband in there, but he wasn’t the dream- the children were. I wanted to give my love to my children, to
show them what love was, teach them the important (imo) things in life, and
have lots of fun together. My thoughts
were always toward a large family, maybe even twelve children.
A year after we were married, medical
testing showed that a divine miracle would be needed for us to conceive. One year after that my faith for a miracle
gave out and my dream shattered. Though
it remained painful, we found our path toward adoption. This became painful as well as adoption of a
baby or young child was near impossible.
Eventually, we did get our names on a list and seven years after
marriage, we were told we would be parents.
I cannot explain the joy we felt, the
excitement. We had about a week to get
ready. We shopped for baby furniture, outlet
plugs, clothing, diapers, bottles, food, toys, and even a stocking to hang on
the mantle (our daughter actually fit in it…). Each new item brought more joy
and anticipation. Then one day we got
the call. We were parents of a beautiful
and healthy baby girl.
The day we spent with her birthmom in
the hospital, we got to hold her in our arms for the first time. We fell in love with her. She was perfect in every way. I could barely believe what a great blessing
God had given us. When we brought her
home, she was our delight, our greatest Christmas present. It was easy to spend hours just gazing at her
beautiful face as we held her. I loved
to sing to her, play with her, touch her soft skin and hair, and kiss her chubby
cheeks.
She was mine, my precious daughter,
forever.
We are God’s*, His precious adopted children, forever!
(God) His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own
family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because
he wanted to!* Now all praise to
God for his wonderful kindness to us and his favor that he has poured out upon
us, because we belong to his dearly loved
Son.
So overflowing is his kindness
towards us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom
we are saved; and he has showered down^ upon
us the richness of his grace- for how well he understand us and knows what is best for us at all times. God has told us his secret reason for sending Christ, a
plan he decided on in mercy long ago, and this was his
purpose^: that when the time is ripe he will gather us all together from
wherever we are- in heaven or on earth- to be with
him in Christ, forever.
in whom also we have been
chosen to an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose
of Him who works all things according to the
counsel of His own will,
Ep. 1:5-11 TLB (last verse in MKJV)
There was joy and excitement when we were born into God’s
family (Lk. 15:10; Hb. 12:2) and we
are now God’s treasure (Ml. 3:17)
that He loves (Jh. 3:16; Rm. 5:8)
dearly!!!
*if we are born again
*to the good pleasure of His will
^caused to abound, overflow (lavished in ESV)
^according to His good pleasure which He purposed