Ni Hao,
Tomorrow is Gotcha Day. Let me say that again since it sounds so sweet: TOMORROW IS GOTCHA DAY.
While so much races through our minds at this time, there are two in particular that have risen to the surface for me.
I recall a conversation with my best friend from back in September of 1999. Jason was two weeks away from fatherhood, as Bradley was ready and waiting to come into this world. I, on the other hand, was not close to parenthood, or was at least a day and nine months away. Anyhow, somehow the observation popped in my head that Jason was no closer to understanding the responsibility and the beauty of being a parent than I was.
And that’s where Rose and I find ourselves with the adoption of Ray. Even though we’ve been journeying to this point from birth, we still do not fully comprehend the Love God has in store for us; possibly if we did we’d turn and run for the hills. Indeed, we can only imagine the special place Ray will have in our life, and in the lives of others.
The other prominent reality is that…Rose…is not here with me. Long gone are the mixed emotions with this. Last year we accepted the call to China, and knew that one day I would be here, and Rose would be there. And today we are so thankful for the blessing of my father joining our journey. Even so, we are still emotional; yet sadness is very definitely not a part of it. There is too much for which to be grateful, too much to contemplate.
Ten years and nine months ago I got down on one knee and asked Rose to spend the rest of her life with me. It was underneath the early light of a lamp post on Federal Hill in Baltimore. Looking up through the tears I recited a Robert Frost poem we both knew, one we both felt would Identify our Identity in marriage. To share here, we find The Pasture:
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha'n't be gone long.--You come too.
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha'n't be gone long.--You come too.
…You come too. If either one of us was to take off our wedding band, if only briefly, that inscription could be found inside. Rose’s mother often says you don’t give 50% of yourself in marriage in order to make 100%; rather, you give 100% of yourself to your spouse. We’ve been true to that in our marriage. And for that reason it is very difficult for Rose and for me to be separated during what arguably is the biggest event in our lives. We understand, of course, that it is just the beginning.
I never would have or could have dreamed how prophetic the line, “I'm going out to fetch the little calf that's standing by the mother” would be for us. It is breathtaking to consider the parallel to this adoption. Ray to the calf; his orphanage to the mother; and me being the one to come and fetch him.
And maybe, just maybe, Christ has taken the place of "you" for us. If we were to be honest, we had not opened the door to Him back then. That has changed, He has changed. Us, for the better. Us, for Ray. Us, for Him.
Tomorrow is Gotcha Day. How sweet the sound.
My Dearest Rose, I love you with all my heart.
dem
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