There’s nothing quite like welcoming a new baby, and to celebrate their baptism. That warm, fuzzy, joyful feeling just gets better when you know just how close that little one was to being aborted.
Yesterday, on Respect Life Sunday, we were privileged to be a part of the family that came together to welcome one such precious wee girl into the Church and into the world. So many prayers had been sent up to heaven that she may live. So many hours were spent by Clare and Colleen, being a friend to this little one’s birth parents, as they struggled with their situation. What a celebration it was!
But this story gets even better. because this little girl’s adoptive parents have much to teach all of us about how children are a gift from God.
They had long come to understand that they would not have children and it no longer occurred to them to pray that they would be blessed in this way. “She is a real gift, we did not ask, she just came to us” is what her mother told me “that is what a gift is”.
This beautiful little girl, who came so close to death, is a real gift. A gift to her parents, who love her beyond measure; and a gift to the world that we might know just how precious our children are – both born and unborn.