My son Jordan played baseball for the first time this year. This was a new experience for our family. Our children have played soccer and basketball, but never baseball. So, we were injected into a new social circle ... The lower-southampton sports association.
Aside from his performance at bat and on the field (which, I must say, was impressive for a rookie) I was very pleased to see Jordan adapt to and thrive in a new circle of friends. He really enjoyed paling around with his teammates.
For most of his games, we were all able to come as a family to watch Jordan play and cheer him on. At one such game in May, Jonathan and Ben wandered over to the dugout. The following conversation ensued:
Jonathan: (to Jordan's teammates) Hi!
Jersey #11: What's your name?
Jersey #9 / Jordan: That's my brother, Jonathan.
Jeresy #11: He's your brother?!
Jersey #9: Yes. I adopted him from China!
Jersey #11: Then who's he? (Pointing to Ben)
Jersey #9: That's my brother, Ben.
Jersey #11: How many brothers you have, Jordan?
Jersey #9: Three. But I am going to adopt one more, Leo.
Jersey #11: You're adopting ANOTHER brother?
Jersey #9: Sure. Why not?
Jersey #13: (To the assistant coach) What's adopted mean?
Jersey #5: (To his dad) Can we adopt too?
Kim and I watched all this transpire, and we loved it. It was funny to see the other kids reactions to Jordan's matter-of-fact proclamations, and even funnier still to see how adopting Jonathan and Leo had, in his eyes, become something that *he* had done.
Its funny, sure. But its also a powerful reminder to me to keep my perspective in check.
Yesterday was a hard day for Kim. After she had made the extensive preparations necessary to get Leo to a (mandatory) meeting with his birth-Mom, the meeting was abruptly cancelled, with very little notice. This not only complicated Kim's day, but added the burden of having to make another set of extraordinary arrangements for another mandatory meeting, someday soon, in the future. Of course no one could tell her exactly when the rescheduled date would be. All the agency could say was "we'll let you know."
Great.
Pepper all that with a hefty amount of sleep depravation and you have a recipe for a heavy, emotional, blow.
But later that same day, dear friends bought us all Chinese take-out for dinner.
Also, that same day, a volunteer at the local library offered to come teach us sign language for free. (An important thing, given Leo's hearing imparement!)
And this coming Saturday, another long-time friend has marshalled volunteers to help us with some adoption-related painting and wall paper removal.
So, just as Jordan really didn't adopt a brother all by himself, I am reminded that Kim and are not all by ourselves in this process either.
We have friends. We have family. We have God. Sadly, all this doesn't insulate us from emotionally draining circumstances like Kim faced yesterday. It doesn't insulate us from all harm. It doesn't make it all easy.
It does make us interdependent on others. It does make us depenent on God.
Truth be told, I would readily trade much of this interdependence for double the personal resources. Think of it! Double the house, double the salary, etc. etc.
I am shallow like that, I know.
But that's clearly not the plan. Maybe in the new Heaven and new Earth that the Bible talks about that will be the plan. Maybe on Earth 2.0 God's provision will abundantly, extravagantly and clearly accompany His will.
Until then, we have a different plan. And the key elements of it seem to be:
Interdependence.
Dependence.
Risk.
... and ...
Faith.
Aside from his performance at bat and on the field (which, I must say, was impressive for a rookie) I was very pleased to see Jordan adapt to and thrive in a new circle of friends. He really enjoyed paling around with his teammates.
For most of his games, we were all able to come as a family to watch Jordan play and cheer him on. At one such game in May, Jonathan and Ben wandered over to the dugout. The following conversation ensued:
Jonathan: (to Jordan's teammates) Hi!
Jersey #11: What's your name?
Jersey #9 / Jordan: That's my brother, Jonathan.
Jeresy #11: He's your brother?!
Jersey #9: Yes. I adopted him from China!
Jersey #11: Then who's he? (Pointing to Ben)
Jersey #9: That's my brother, Ben.
Jersey #11: How many brothers you have, Jordan?
Jersey #9: Three. But I am going to adopt one more, Leo.
Jersey #11: You're adopting ANOTHER brother?
Jersey #9: Sure. Why not?
Jersey #13: (To the assistant coach) What's adopted mean?
Jersey #5: (To his dad) Can we adopt too?
Kim and I watched all this transpire, and we loved it. It was funny to see the other kids reactions to Jordan's matter-of-fact proclamations, and even funnier still to see how adopting Jonathan and Leo had, in his eyes, become something that *he* had done.
Its funny, sure. But its also a powerful reminder to me to keep my perspective in check.
Yesterday was a hard day for Kim. After she had made the extensive preparations necessary to get Leo to a (mandatory) meeting with his birth-Mom, the meeting was abruptly cancelled, with very little notice. This not only complicated Kim's day, but added the burden of having to make another set of extraordinary arrangements for another mandatory meeting, someday soon, in the future. Of course no one could tell her exactly when the rescheduled date would be. All the agency could say was "we'll let you know."
Great.
Pepper all that with a hefty amount of sleep depravation and you have a recipe for a heavy, emotional, blow.
But later that same day, dear friends bought us all Chinese take-out for dinner.
Also, that same day, a volunteer at the local library offered to come teach us sign language for free. (An important thing, given Leo's hearing imparement!)
And this coming Saturday, another long-time friend has marshalled volunteers to help us with some adoption-related painting and wall paper removal.
So, just as Jordan really didn't adopt a brother all by himself, I am reminded that Kim and are not all by ourselves in this process either.
We have friends. We have family. We have God. Sadly, all this doesn't insulate us from emotionally draining circumstances like Kim faced yesterday. It doesn't insulate us from all harm. It doesn't make it all easy.
It does make us interdependent on others. It does make us depenent on God.
Truth be told, I would readily trade much of this interdependence for double the personal resources. Think of it! Double the house, double the salary, etc. etc.
I am shallow like that, I know.
But that's clearly not the plan. Maybe in the new Heaven and new Earth that the Bible talks about that will be the plan. Maybe on Earth 2.0 God's provision will abundantly, extravagantly and clearly accompany His will.
Until then, we have a different plan. And the key elements of it seem to be:
Interdependence.
Dependence.
Risk.
... and ...
Faith.
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