Adding Another Blessing

Posted Jan 6th, 2013

Well at the ripe old age of 55, (my wife is younger than that) we have been blessed with the opportunity to add another child to our family. My wife and my 16 year old son will be flying to China at the end of the week to complete our adoption process of our little girl. She is a beautiful little 2 year old girl that God has blessed us with. I will stay at home with my other two daughters (7 and 11) and hold the fort. My oldest daughter has her own apartment in Seattle while she attends the University of Washington. Hopefully she can stop in and check on Dear Old Dad for the 2 weeks it will take to return home from China. It really is amazing when you think of it. How a child and parents can find each other from opposite sides of the world and come together as a family. We have already fallen in love with her of course and are excited to get her home!! This will be an adjustment for her, especially seeing how I bear little resemblance to a Chinese male. I am betting that she may take an attachment early on to her 11 year old sister who happens to hail from Korea. I pray that God will make this go as smoothly as posssible. We have been through the international adoption process twice before and it never ceases to amaze me how resilient the kids are and just how fast that parental/child bond takes place. It is such a natural thing. Even though many people have heaped “praise” on us for what we have done it is a no-brainer!  We are the ones who really benefit.  There is no better feeling to know that a small child depends on you and loves you and thinks you are just the greatest thing in the whole wide world. It really is a privilege to be the one who can say “Yep! that’s my little angel” and to take care of their needs, to be the one who holds them when they are sick or hurting. To be the one clapping and cheering for them at their first school play or music concert. As my children grow older one of the things I miss the most is when they were small and would cuddle up in a big chair with me or fall asleep on my chest as I lay on the couch and we watch a Disney movie tgether. I will get another chance at that soon and I can’t wait. Especially when my wife has something for me to do and I just kind’a point to the sleeping child on my chest and whisper that I can’t  because I don’t want to wake up the “little monkey”. I don’t have the same energy as I did when I was a younger father but it all seems to work out because the older siblings do and they kind’a pick up some of the slack as far as occupying the imagination and spirit of a young toddler. My daughter will have some physical challenges with her legs but we are confident with the great pediatricians/surgeons we have here in the Seattle area (Children’s Hospital)  that she will be in good hands and will be able to lead a pretty normal life. She may not be a track star but who is to say. When determination and the love of a family supporting you come together, amazing things can be accomplished. Please pray for my family’s safe journey and that all goes well. I won’t be playing too many gigs this month of January as I will be playing Mr. Mom. I am looking forward to that as well. It will be nice to have the evenings open for a couple of weekends with my kids. God Bless and I hope that you all have a great New Year!