Orphan Sunday & My New Nephew

My nephew’s 4-D ultrasound.

My week-old nephew.

I spent last Monday in Memphis, eagerly sitting in a hospital room, happy. Happy because we made it in time. Happy because this hospital visit was to await life, not a diagnosis or death.

By supper, I was holding my hour-old nephew, his eyes wide open to this world he will live in.

Tuesday my coworker texted that she, too, had given birth that morning. I held this five-hour life, sound asleep, his long, slender fingers grasping mine with tremendous strength for one so little.

And Thursday and Friday I sat in Memphis once again, nurturing this nephew of mind, marveling at this creation in my lap. As I snuggled with him on the couch, I reflected on this week of life that the Lord had granted me and these thoughts came to mind.

• God gives breath and God takes breath away. Holding an infant is all the sweeter after walking through the valley of still-borns and miscarriages with friends. Even as we waiting during labor, we worried that complications would crop up quickly and take the doctors by surprise. 
• Adoption is an urgent issue. On Orphan Sunday (November 3rd), I learned that there are 420 children in the Madison County region that need homes and 125 that need foster parents.  As I fed, burped, and endlessly changed diapers, I found myself putting faces to adoption. There are babies in cribs right now without a mother waking to their cries. These babies become toddlers, teens, and adults who need families. God adopted us as His children, in turn, we need to find ways to support and adopt these children.
• “Miracle” is an insufficient word for a newborn. The tiny fingerprint alone is something to marvel at. Even more the way this vulnerable baby knows to take its first breath. No Accident is powerful enough to knit a life together in a mother’s womb.