This weekend these two turn 10 years old and 2 months old!! They are my bookends and it melts my heart to see the immense love Kolbe has for Briella. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone!! So many emotions in just one picture.
It feels like just yesterday I was in the hospital giving birth yet somehow two months have disappeared. If only the last two months of pregnancy would go by that quickly and the first two months of life be frozen in time.
Five years ago I was blowing out candles on a birthday cake at our adoption shower for a son I had never met, but who had already won my heart! Five candles for an amazing little boy, who upon seeing just a few pictures of him instantly captured my heart with his big brown eyes. I blew out his candles and made a wish for him 5,000 miles apart.
We didn’t eat any of the cake that day, but instead put it in the freezer, so when the time would come that we would finally be together we could enjoy it as a family. We celebrated his 5th birthday not knowing that in just three weeks we would be flying across the world and he would be in my arms forever!!
And now to see him this weekend blowing out his own candles, ten candles surrounded by a fan club of siblings. A sight I never thought I would see just a short six years ago.
From the time Kolbe could speak English he prayed fervently for a baby sister. He had no idea of Aaron and I’s struggle, so I simply told him that maybe someday in the future we would adopt a little girl. He proved me wrong. God heard his prayer. Prayers filled with complete child-like trust and faith. Faith with no reservations or hints of doubt. Faith with full abandonment knowing that God would answer. And when we told the boys a few short months later that I was pregnant, Kolbe knew the baby was a girl.
The Gospel reading from Friday ties in so perfectly. Faith that knows God will answer. Not only will he answer, but he will open our eyes. He will open our eyes to see the marvels and wonders performed in our midst. Open our eyes to his goodness, his unending love. And upon seeing, our lives will be radically transformed.
When he entered the house,
Matthew 9:27-29
the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them,
“Do you believe that I can do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they said to him.
Then he touched their eyes and said,
“Let it be done for you according to your faith.”
And their eyes were opened.
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