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First comes love

Then come marriage

Then comes the baby in the baby carriage.

This is how we have been trained to see life.

A picture of a couple settled in holy matrimony,

making a planned decision to bring one or more children

into the world.

A baby is welcomed into the family

With a shower of

Gifts

Hugs

Words of encouragement for the first timer

The belly swells with joy

Pride

Because this is what they have been waiting for

This once traditional ordering is being played around with so much in society

So lets just mess around with it some more.

Lets throw another way into the mix.

A couple with several children open their home to foster children

Adopted children

Not with the usual baby shower

But a “Gotcha” day

And a step out into an unpredictable world.

One of a variety of emotions.

The multicultural smiles around the table,

remind them that this,

though a hard decision,

Is a beautiful one.

The children interact with love

This is what they have been waiting for.

While we are mixing with the non-traditional

Can I suggest something even more different?

A couple, married for a few years, think about a new arrival

Or two

Or three

Not of their own womb, but still to be

Their own

Surprising as they scan the internet, they see so many sibling groups

Twos

Threes

Fours

Even a few fives

What is their story the couple wonder?

Abandoned, abused, neglected, malnourished...

But the story doesn’t seem to matter

It’s the faces that matter.

The faces that say:

“Will you be our family

Forever?”

The hands that hold one another tight and say:

“Please, keep us all

together”

The eyes that don’t quite make contact as if to say:

“I don’t know if we can trust you

but

we want to”

The couple discover on their journey,

It’s not just the cute, little newborn that needs a home

It’s the bigger ones

Those “bigger” in age

Those “bigger” in emotional issues

Those “bigger” in developmental and mental health needs

Those “bigger” in grouping

When the world has 147 millions orphans

147 million individual lives

needing a home

a family

a mummy & a daddy

Why make another baby?

Why bring a life into this world,

when they are so many in need already?

Is it selfish to want a child that looks likes you

Sounds like you

Came from you

When there are so many who still need you?

What defines a child

Your child?

Is it that they came from you,

made with your DNA?

Or is the time that you spend with them

Developing them

Training them

Playing with them

Investing in them

and Loving them?

What makes a mum and a dad?

Is it merely genetics?

Or is it something else

Something more

Something greater

Steve and I step into a journey of working out

What are we called to?

Why is this becoming something that we grow passionate about?

When will we be parents?

Who will be our children?

Whether they come

From us

Or to us

They

We know

will be like us.