Ten Years

2015 has been a year of remembering.

Remembering...

10 years ago March, getting the good news that we were expecting. After so many issues with infertility, we felt certain this time would be different.

10 years ago April, seeing the results of the sonogram that told us we would be enduring miscarriage #7.

10 years ago August, when we started praying about adoption.

10 years ago November, when we submitted our adoption profile.

10 years today, at this very moment, when we got the phone call telling us that we had been chosen. That a birth mother had selected us to adopt her baby. That this young women had asked the lawyer to call us on Christmas Eve so it would be a Christmas surprise for us.

10 years ago today when we spoke to her for the first time. We knew very little about her other than her name and where she lived. We would come to know more, but what do you say to the woman who is choosing for her baby to become your baby?

It's one of the most amazing acts of sacrificial love on this earth. I don't know how she did it, but we will be forever grateful. Thankful. Honored. Blessed.

Love comes in all different forms. We love our spouses differently than we love our kids.  We love our friends differently than we love our parents. There is a special kind of love for birth mothers as well. We don't know her well, but we love her for the gift she chose to give.

While not exactly the same, it reminds me of the gift Christ gave to us, starting in a manger and continuing to the cross. Selfless. Sacrificial. Amazing. Loving.

May your joy this season come from the the gifts that cannot be found under the tree, the gifts of family, of friends, and of Christ's love for you.