02/27/06 :: The joy of adoption and parenting
Ashburn, VA >> In December, two couples from Grace Community Church traveled to China to adopt orphan girls. Grace Community’s Kathy Swistock sent us the story…
Tito and Marci Mercado left in early December to pick up baby Annie from the Jiangxi province, while Wayne and Martha Mason left at the end of December (taking along their three other kids!) to pick up baby Ruth from the Guangdong province. Both girls are about a year old.
Tito and Marci had been through Guangzhou (otherwise known as “baby city”) once before, when they adopted their daughter Kaylin from the Jiangsu province. Thus, on their second trip, Marci knew the second she got off the plane that she’d be getting some great deals on good merchandise. Being a devotee of the fine art of bargaining, she loved interacting with the Chinese merchants because they fully shared her “thrill of the chase.”
Wayne and Martha Mason were also delighted with their trip to China. They were fascinated with the differences between Chinese and American cities—the pace, the warm and friendly people, the swarms of bicyclists. Among their favorite trips was a three-hour bus ride to the orphanage where Ruth was found; the beauty and variety of the countryside was a sharp contrast to the steady buzz of Guangzhou.
But the highlight for both families was the joy of welcoming a new daughter, with the knowledge that the long trip home from China to Virginia was only the beginning. What does the future look like? Tito described it in the closing entry of the Mercados' online adoption journal:
[As we got home] there were a swirl of emotions and things to ponder for the future—but we have little time to ponder much; we have a lot of work to do.
The kids are already gelling together. Matthew, Nathan, and Kaylin are all enjoying Annie in concrete ways. She is extremely responsive to their initiatives—whether it’s to make baby noises, to clap, to smile; she is keeping up with them every step. She is crawling around seemingly everywhere, especially on that smooth kitchen floor, and she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth—legos, toy blocks, paper, and even food…This is obvious to most but I’m a little slow: As this journal comes to an end, life is really now just beginning. The enormity of the task before us is somewhat daunting... and this has nothing to do with adoption. This has to do with being parents to four children. Four souls entrusted to us by God for nourishment, care, and training in godliness.
We are not up to the task.
This occurred to me yesterday as I was feeding Annie at 4:00 in the morning (this was more to do with time zone changes because Annie is a great sleeper) and the rest of the kids at 6:30. The truth is that we are always dependent on God, but something about holding Annie still for just a few moments of solitude awakened in me the reality that Marci and I are going to have draw near to God more than ever to get his help like never before. We truly are not up to the task, and we are learning all over again what it means to be parents. Parents not just to Annie, of course, but parents to Matthew, Nathan, and Kaylin in the midst of another mouth to feed and heart to cultivate. This is a precious gift from God—to reacquaint us with our limitations and to become aware of our great need of him. He is faithful and he is strong. He has never failed us and he will never forsake us. This is the stuff of utter joy. We don’t have to be completely up to the task—he is so much bigger.
Photos: (top) Ruth Mason, (bottom) Annie Mercado