Corner of Central Florida: Adoption Day - the Great's first anniversary

Warning: this post contains adorable children eating chocolate cupcakes....also known as messy-crumb-and-icing-smiles pictures.

Sometimes our sweet toddler gets mad at me and tells me to "go away mommy".

And I usually reply "Never. Mommy will never go away." And sometimes I add a maniacal laugh.

They are stuck with me and R. And we know that we got the better end of this deal.

Tonight at dinner I paused eating and conversation so I could watch the Great eat black beans. He prefers his left hand, carefully chooses one bean to pick up, places it in his mouth and then moves those chunky cheeks while trying to chew/gum the bean, ending with a smack of the lips. He is the most adorable black bean soup consumer.

The last chapter of C.S. Lewis's The Four Loves is titled Charity. Lewis writes:

"Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as "Careful! This might lead you to suffering." To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience.";

and "We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour.";

and "As so often, Our Lord's own words are both far fiercer and far more tolerable than those of theologians. He says nothing about guarding against earthly loves for fear we might be hurt; He says something that cracks like a whip about trampling them all under foot the moment they hold us back from following Him."

Only good has come from meeting the Great's birth mother and birth father, from hoping for another child, from sitting next to his birth mother in the OR, from spending time holding the Great in the hospital, from bringing him home, and from standing before a judge last year to finalize his adoption.

"To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience." (Lewis)