Picture or the Real Thing

I caught up with an old friend of mine today.  We've known each other for over twenty years!  He has three kids and I think he's a great dad, so much so that Amy and I have asked him and his wife to be Jada's godparents, to look out for Jada in the event something should happen to the both of us. 

 

Anyway, he was sharing about how hard it is sometimes to keep up with his kids, in terms of their misbehaving.  And he has good kids!  It got me thinking, as the day we leave for China fast approaches.  I've looked at the two pictures we have of Jada about 10,000 times, and each time I ache to meet her, to hold her, to begin our life together.

 

But every so often in those 10,000 times, I know I've thought to myself, "Just looking at the picture is nice, too."  After all, the picture doesn't cry or soil itself or wake up in the middle of the night – or keep us up in the middle of the night, worrying about if she has the right friends or if she's doing well in school.  The picture won't cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars to send to college.  The picture, in other words, is nice and neat; the real thing will be messy and unpredictable.

 

But after looking at the picture 10,000 times, I think I'd rather have the real thing.