While Amy and I joke about living all our unfulfilled childhood dreams through our children, we know that it can be tempting to pressure our kids and will try hard to not burden them in that way. But sometimes I catch myself wanting great things for Jada in a way that is probably unhealthy and idolatrous. It will be easy to impose onto her my drivenness about exercise and health and knowledge and travel and, well, just about everything. I kid with friends that since Jada’s legal status will be as if she was born in the US when we complete the adoption, she can technically run for president someday, and so I will be grooming her for that role at once. (Is www.jada2040.com available?) I know it will be a challenge for me to balance my desire to expose her to as much as possible and to give her opportunities to explore and to succeed, while at the same time not stifling her childhood or putting too much stress or dysfunction into her life.
Amy is usually the opposite of me on this. If you asked me what I want for Jada, I could go on for days. If you ask Amy, she would probably say one thing: “I want her to love God.” And you know what, like Jesus did with Martha and Mary, He would probably tell us that out of the two of us, Amy’s the one that’s got it right.
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