What If

Jada's been such a happy camper that, with a few minor exceptions, the transition to parenthood has been a relatively smooth one.  So smooth that I ought to just enjoy it, and not always dread that there'll come a day when she becomes more difficult.  But that's a story for another post.

 

Anyway, Amy and I both catch ourselves just gazing at our daughter, smiling as we realize how happy she is and how much happiness she has brought us.  We talk often about what it would have been like if we didn't get to get her for another couple of months, or if we never got her at all.  How emptier our lives would have been! 

 

And what about from Jada's perspective – what if she was still in the orphanage?  What if there was no such thing as this process that China has whereby people from other countries apply to adopt their abandoned babies?  When we consider the "what if's" of Jada's life, we are not filled with congratulating ourselves for "rescuing" her, we are rather humbled by the joy of a little baby we have been allowed to see with our own eyes.  Here is a little girl who loves her mommy and daddy -- loves to see them in the morning, loves to play with them through the day, and loves to be held by them as she drifts off to sleep. 

 

It is indeed humbling to think we have given her so much joy.  I believe in a God who is over all, a God who sovereignly orchestrates all things, including mothers abandoning their daughters and governments processing paperwork and couples making decisions to become parents via adoption.  And so Amy and I are humbled that we could be used by that God to love this child, to feed her and protect her, and to help her to grow.