Poor little David…. We’d only been at the Jersey shore for a day or two when we realized that he wasn’t feeling well. A trip to a local pediatrician confirmed our fears: he’d somehow picked up both an ear infection and pink eye. Although there wasn’t a Meijer (with its free antibiotics for kids!) within several hundred miles, at least there was a local Wal-Mart where we could get them for $4. Almost as importantly, I guess it’s a good thing Aunt Becca got him these cool sunglasses!
Almost twenty years ago, an artist named Michael McLean wrote a beautiful song called From God’s Arms to My Arms to Yours. The song is sung from the perspective of a birthmother preparing to place her little boy with his Eternal family. The song has always made Daddy cry, every single time, but now it’s even more poignant. Each time he hears it, he has in his mind’s eye our own little girl’s birthmother, with that beautiful voice of hers singing this incomparable song to us, the parents of the child she bore.
So anyway, this morning, little Leah was out in the driveway with her cousins Caleb and Sam, running around and playing. She was wearing a dress (which was our first mistake), so when she fell down, there was damage. Both knees were skinned and the tears came freely. As Daddy picked her up, immediately to his mind came a line from the bridge of the aforementioned song: “Now I know you don’t have to do this, but could you kiss him once for me / The first time that he ties his shoes or falls and skins his knee?” (Seriously, even just typing this, Daddy’s sobbing uncontrollably.)
So now, here it was: “the first time that [s]he … f[e]ll and skin[ned] her knee.” As Daddy held his daughter close, he gave her not two but three kisses through the tears: one from himself, one from Danny, and one from Auntie Kellie. It’s really the very least he could do for these wonderful angels, the people that gave us our little Leah. And as Michael states is the intent of the song, we hope and pray that Leah always knows—even across the miles—how much her birthparents really do love her.
Finally, as for us—we that have been entrusted with her care—we can only pray for the ability to “give this baby both [her] mothers’ love”—and both her fathers’, as well.
(Oh, the by the way…. If you check the Photos page, you’ll see that once we added Band-Aids to the boo-boos, Leah was good as new!) ☺
Well, it’s been a couple of weeks now, but we’re finally in the new place. We’ve still had to make several trips back to the old house—we’ve got pretty much everything out of there now, not that there was that much left—and will be making yet another on Wednesday, to get the last few things, but we’re finally back in Lafayette, and man! does it feel wonderful! Mommy and Daddy both agree that this house already feels more like home than the old one ever did, and we can only attribute that to the presence of family: the fact that Anna’s most distant sibling is a mere twenty minutes’ drive is incredible, and being able to get together with our best friends in the world—her family—is just amazing. (Not to mention the nine cousins that the kids now have nearby!)
We’re slowly getting back into the swing of things—among other things, Daddy’s still working via wireless connection since the electricians still haven’t finished hooking up the phone jack in his office—but it’s all coming together, slowly but surely. Leah loves her new room, David’s sleeping more (although his room still isn’t ready, but give it time), and life is generally a lot more fun.
We’ll keep you posted!
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