For Such A Time As This

"Adoption means you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy"

We have been home now for a little over two weeks. The time has flown by, as time does when you are busy from morning until night. And when I say morning, I do mean the wee hours. The hours that I do not normally see. I am learning to love the morning.

I am also learning to love afternoon naps.

I am also loving our new baby. I won't say "learning to love" him because I think we are way past that stage. I moved past "learning to love" after the first couple of hours, and the only reason it took me that long was because it was a few hours before I had him by myself. I was in a hospital the first few hours surrounded by doctors, nurses, and an attorney - all who had known him for the first eight days of his life. I was kind of on the outside those first few hours as they all filled me in on his likes and dislikes.

Finally, very late at night that first evening, I closed the door to my hotel room and I was alone. Totally alone, since even my husband was not there yet. Then I was able to lay him on the bed, look at every little finger and toe, go back again and kiss those same fingers and toes and really get to know my baby. The one that has been growing in my heart for years and years.

Ours may be one of the shortest adoptions on record as far as the attorney is concerned, at three weeks from first phone call to baby in hand....but, I assure you that as far as I am concerned this little baby has been growing in my heart for a long, long time.

There is no doubt in our minds that this is the baby God planned for our family before the foundations of the earth. Thankfully, I have a husband who listens to God's voice and obeys it, even when his wife nags at him to move faster. I shudder to think that we would have missed this baby had I had my way. I will certainly stop and think before I try to push my husband into something again before he feels the timing is right.

However, I have to say that now I am not the first one to answer when someone asks, "So, is this it for you?" My amazing husband, who is also totally in love with this new little one, and the BEST daddy in the world is the first to reply, "I don't think so."

The shocked look on most faces is priceless! I love it! And I love him so much for not caring when people ask if he realizes how old he will be when this baby graduates from college. He is a math guy, you can believe he realizes it! He also knows how much it is going to cost, and he knows what it will take to retire. The best news of all is that being obedient to God is more important to him than all of those things combined, and I could not love him more for it.

So, in case anyone is wondering....he will be 66 years old when this baby is 20, and we are ok with that. God is in control of the length of our days. We really have no desire to have an "empty nest" and we will be thrilled if our oldest start giving us grandbabies while we still have little ones.

We are blessed with grandparents who are active in our children's lives and now with two almost adult children who are very capable of caring for our little ones when we need an occasional evening out. Actually, though, being with our children is what we like to do, and we don't really need to much extended time away from them. God has knit our marriage stronger and stronger with each new addition and he is doing the same thing this time. Never let the world tell you that you deserve time alone or that children come between a husband and a wife. That is the lie that satan loves to feed the people of God so that we stop producing godly fruit. We do not deserve anything good in this life, but God who is rich in mercy has offered children as His greatest blessing. Don't allow the world to sell you its pack of lies. With Jesus in the center of a marriage, there is nothing that can weaken it - certainly not more blessings!!