Anniversary Day

The day she came home, I didn't even know how to put a onesie on frontwards!

Five years ago today Daniel and I drove to UCSF, walked in as a boring couple, and walked out as a blended family. Until the MOMENT we walked out the nurses kept asking, "are you really going to take her!?!" they had had so many potential foster parents back out at the last minute. We didn't understand the big fuss, "Yes! Why would we show up if we weren't?" Looking back I understand now, we had never been parents before. We knew she would require more than your average baby but we had nothing to compare her to. To us she was a baby who needed a home and a bit of medical care, we could provide both. Oh how gracious God was in keeping our vision so narrow! If we had known all the factors, seen all the ways that commitment would change our lives, known we would fall in love with her, adopt her, raise her as our own, and say goodbye all within 5 short years I am doubtful we would have accepted the challenge.

Five years later I sit here thinking of the many ways she rocked my world. Thinking of how powerful a single interaction with her could be. Thinking of how God used her to open my mind to different cultures, different values, different personalities. I am thinking of how I learned more about medicine from parenting her than I did in hours of studying for nursing school exams. I am thinking of all the lasting relationships that grew from parenting her, relationships with social workers, therapists, doctors, and teachers. I am thinking about how she saved me from insanity when Capper was a fussy baby and she was the only one who could make him smile. I am thinking of how she challenged my creativity every day and challenged me to find peace amidst chaos rather than organization. I am thinking of how I admired the fact that she had more patience than plenty of adults!

Looking forward, I wonder what the next 5 years will hold. Two months ago we thought we knew what direction our lives were headed. We had finally achieved our 4 year goal of moving back to Washington, we were "done" having babies, we were moving into a season of school-age children rather than babies and preschoolers, we were at peace with knowing we'd never travel with our children far from a major city, we'd never travel without our children far from them, and we'd never live out of the country. The next 5 years might be easy, they might be hard, they might have some unexpected surprises, they might be kind of boring, but based on past experience I am sure I will be able to look back 5 years from now and say, "WOW!" God had a plan for our lives and I'm glad we went with it.