The Gift of a Father

Often when I see Mark with Isaac I think the most wonderful gift Isaac's birthmother gave him was the gift of a father.

If she had not decided to make an adoption plan, but had chosen instead to raise her little one herself, Isaac would have had a mother. He even would have had wonderful grandparents who most likely would have been very involved in his life (we met them, and they are wonderful people). But he wouldn't have had a father.

The other night I listened through the baby monitor as Mark put Isaac to bed. Since I'm ready for a break by 6:30 or so, that task usually falls to Mark--and he does a much better job than I do. Mark talks the whole time while he's putting on a diaper, changing Isaac into his pajamas, as he gives him his evening bottle. That night I listened as Mark read Isaac a simple board book, but added his own commentary, pointing out details in the pictures. When they got to a picture of a baby in a "bouncy seat", Mark said, "Oh look, Isaac, that baby is in a bouncy seat--his mommy must be in the shower." :-) Then Mark rubs each of Isaac's fingers and each of his toes, as he counts them--One, two, three, four, five. Usually he will quietly sing Isaac a song just before he puts him down in his crib with his Mr. Elephant.

I absolutely love watching Mark be a dad--I'm sure every wife who is blessed to have children loves to watch the transformation of her husband into a loving father. It makes it a little more amazing to me that it is the miracle of adoption that not only gives me the opportunity to see Mark become a father, but that makes it possible for Isaac to even have a father in his life.

I am so grateful for the woman who made this choice. This Christmas season, as Isaac's birthmother may be thinking about last Christmas when she was carrying this little person in her body, and beyond the holiday as Isaac's birthday approaches, I pray that God will comfort and bless her, and give her some sense of the wonderful gift she gave her child--the gift of a father.