This Christmas, for the first time in several years, we had just our family. No visitors, no friends. It was a very quiet house yesterday (well, at least after the gifts were opened!)
It was a good Christmas where Matt and I concentrated on each of our kids. Desta, fearing she’d miss anything, refused to nap, but who could blame her? She just wanted to be part of it all.
The quiet gave time for reflection. The kids and I watched movies of when we first brought Desta home three months ago.
As I tucked in the kids for bed last night, Caroline and I began a conversation about the many people she saw at the rescue mission with her daddy on Christmas Eve. It had struck her how those people really wouldn’t have much of a Christmas this year. She then said, “Mommy, Desta wouldn’t have had a Christmas this year either if we hadn’t adopted her.” I replied in the affirmative. She then said, “Mom, we need to adopt again.”
Yes, Miss Caroline, we do need to adopt again. I don’t know what that child looks like right now, I don’t know if it’s a boy or girl but honey, we do need to adopt. Each time I look at Desta, I realize how much our family was missing until she arrived. Now I could do without so many stinky diapers (with lingering salmonella still in her system, those are a dandy to change, let me tell you!) but her smile, her JOY, her squeals. She is a delight to our family.
Oh how I wish every orphan would have a family. How I long for the day when all children will feel loved and special! Some day…some day!
I was born in Jos, Nigeria many years ago. I spent the next nineteen years living in Liberia, Kenya and Ethiopia.
What an awesome connection for Caroline to make! I grew up spending every holiday in the mission since it was my dad’s job and I never made the connection to adoption but she is totally right!