A Day Shared . . .

Palm Sunday...............Brie's Birthday!

Christ and Brie sharing one special Sunday. As a King who rode on a donkey, came to bring salvation to those around, so humble, and not what the people were expecting. In a small similar way, so our daughter comes to her family. Riding in a car full of strangers, not what we had expected our adoption journey to end, and yet salvation would awaken us through her arrival. Thank you Jesus for your life, and thank you Jesus for Brianne Nichole's life.

This morning, Brie is sleeping while her daddy took the other two girls to church. She just got back from a history trip with her school, and didn't arrive home until 11 p.m. Wiped out, and yet so excited to be home last night. We decided to let her rest. Let her rest in her sweet bed, while unannounced to her the sun is shining through the blinds on this beautiful morning. The birds are extra loud, the wind is slightly blowing, bumble bees fill the tree outside our dining room window. Life is calling, it is rejoicing our Lord, while He gives rest at the same time. Worship, and praise, and rest. Could they be linked? In that order?

All of us have been pacing the floor just waiting for her to wake up. We want to sing Happy Birthday, make her a special breakfast, have her open the gifts that await her on the breakfast bar, but all we can do is wait. Wait for our 14 year-old to awaken! While I wait, I feel a load of emotion coming about. Typically, I start off birthday mornings with the "Tale of You" kind of story. What mom was feeling as contractions were beginning, how Daddy was so excited and anxious. Where Mimi was as we were making our "Here she comes" call and all the small details that make a birthday a fascinating story. Only played out once, and never repeated again!

With Brie, I cannot provide, not one detail of her birth, homecoming or the beginning stages. I can pretend what we would've felt like, but there's not truth behind it. It's just an unknown. It's a chapter that was real, and written, yet they remain blank pages until the secret ink reveals the story. I pray for that day to come. I pray for that moment to arrive.

Not only am I overwhelmed with emotions for our Brianne, but for her biological mother as well. What does she feel every April? What does she remember about that faithful day? Does she have a hole that she recognizes or is there so much pain that she ignores it? How does a woman process giving birth, and releasing rights? I don't know. I pray for her. I want her to know forgiveness through the cross. I want her to know what death meant on Good Friday, and what it means for her on Sunday morning (Resurrection Sunday). Dying to the old way, and finding eternal life at the cross! My heart doesn't feel bitterness towards the woman who carried our daughter, and through the course of events has lost this beautiful girl. My heart grieves for her at momentous times like these.

Oh, sweet Brie. Twelve and a half years on one chapter, and the rest of her life on another. Sometimes I get anxious on her birthday because I feel like our time is ticking away. The age of eighteen plays out in my head like an unwanted guest. Eighteen means nothing, other than the wonderful right to vote. We have a lifetime with Brie. A lifetime of memories, tears, accomplishments, failures, and so much more. Fourteen can be celebrated when I allow God to remind me of the finality of her sweet adoption and how we don't just have her for a few years, rather for eternity!!!! So, it frees me to enjoy the aging process with her and with our other two girls.

Let the celebration begin! Let us rejoice in her birth, her life after death, her victory in Jesus song! Let the birds chirp louder, the winds blow harder, the bees buzz longer and the sun glare stronger!!!!! This is the Day that the Lord has made, we will REJOICE and be glad in it!!!! We will praise Him for coming to us on a donkey, while the palm branches were waived. Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Lord!! And we will REJOICE in the birth of our daughter!! For it's through our adoption that we cry "Abba, Daddy"!!! Blessed are you Lord, and may you pour your blessings upon our precious Brianne Nichole. Brianne, means "Exalted; Lifted Up", and Nichole, means "Victorious One".

May He be "Exalted and Victorious" on Earth, through the life of this amazing teen!