Life in Photos

I make an annual photo book for our family. I slowly piece it together throughout the year so that I can take the time to really enjoy the process. And I can’t tell you how often I look through them. It’s fun to reflect back on the years. And it’s actually helped me fill in memory gaps… especially during Cora’s first year when I was in a fog of sleeplessness. (I sometimes look at a photo in the 2011 time frame and truly not recall the where/what/when of it!)

Our accumulation of books reminds me that this family is established and growing. Chad and I are coming up on our 10 year anniversary! (I'd say something like "where did the time go?" - but I have the photo books to show us! :))

Asher and Cora love the books, too. They flip through and point out every single page. They laugh at funny faces. They replay their favorite stories and ask me to fill in the blanks when they forget a detail. I’m not even sure if their little brains can actually remember the events. I think they’ve seen the pictures so many times that the images, not the memories themselves, have become ingrained in their heads.

Pointing out favorite photos in their books...

Here’s the thing – the other day, I walked into the living room and they were sitting side by side, flipping through the books. I felt an immediate warmth… followed by a sadness… because our adopted kids will not have a similar accumulation of photo books to call their own. We hope to gather as much information as possible to create their own “life books”… books that explain their birth family, culture, and the story of how God brought them to our family. I am praying that their birth family will be willing to meet with us when we visit Ethiopia so that we have details to share with the kids one day. And I’m going to gather up every piece of information that I can while there… This blog will be a part of their life book, too. This is the story of how God spoke to us and led us to them…   

But knowing that they won’t have the full comfort of flipping through their whole history… or maybe wouldn’t even choose to flip through their history because it is painful, saddens me. The millions of memories we make together won’t minimize the ones that aren’t documented or remembered.

So we’ll take as many photos as we can, construct life books and teach them about our God who already knows the story of their lives...

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered.

Psalm 139:15-17