This post originally appeared on Annery at Home in November 2012.
I'm reading an interesting book right now; Holy Sex!: A Catholic Guide... It's all about the marriage relationship and caring for and loving your spouse in all areas of your married life. Obviously, the title does have a little shock value included, but I was reading about the power of self-giving married love and the old saying, "our love is so [powerful, real, strong] that in 9 months we have to give it a name".
This got me thinking about the physical manifestations of love walking around my house calling me "mom". Two of them, I carried and gave birth to. One of them, I did not. Sweet Baby has been a foster child in our home for 16 months, since she was 2 days old.
Last Friday, we had another court hearing in the string of the roller coaster ride that is our journey with her. Her case is still uncertain, and prayers are much appreciated for the Holy Spirit to guide her outcome and prayers for our peace with whatever the outcome may be.
So, I'm reading about how married love creates physical and also spiritual manifestations and I have this ever-present weight in the back of my mind about SB. The author was discussing infertility and spiritual manifestations of a faith-filled union and it got me thinking about SB.
Hubby and I originally became foster parents because we struggled with secondary unexplained infertility. We felt called to open our home and never could have imagined the journey answering that call has taken us on.
As I thought about SB and continued reading the book, SB came into the room and crawled into my lap. In that moment, it hit me like a thunderbolt, our love DID make that. Neither of our biological material went into her making, but she is most assuredly a product of our love.
Our marriage created the home and we acted in accordance with God's will for our lives to bring another child into our family. God really does do amazing things when we're open to life. Since I've had this epiphany, I keep watching SB and realizing all the little quirks she's learned from us and the ways that she's grown that are a direct result of our nurturing.
Maybe it was obvious from the outside, but as I spent time with my husband and girls this Thanksgiving, that's what I was thankful for; that our love did that.