Normal is not an Option

It’s a 5 hour round trip drive to our attachment therapist, and since the sessions are held in the middle of a work day I have not been a part of the bi-weekly trips. Last week that all changed. I was able to get away from work for the day for a marathon trip of driving, therapy and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (a little treat after therapy if the kids work hard).

Jennie and I talk after every session about what the kids have shared so I was a little baffled when all the kids were afraid to share anything with me in the room. Each of them had to go through the process of telling me the stuff about what had happened to them, and some of the bad things they had done, so that they could hear me say that I still loved them.

It is so wild to me that they would think that I didn’t know those things about them, but there was real value in them telling me so I could assure them that I still loved them, despite their baggage and behaviors. The longer I am an adoptive dad, the more I understand just how many parallels there are to God’s adoption of me. Love, forgiveness, and confession make a lot more sense seeing them from a Dad’s perspective.