PARENTING February 15, 2010 Issue

LETTING GOD TAKE THE LEAD

LOIS MARQUARDT

WHETHER IT'S swimming, skiing, tubing, boating, if it has to do with water, our family is all over it!

We first discovered this affinity the day after our twin daughters, whom we adopted from Russia when they were six, came home to the United States. It was July, and we couldn't wait to introduce them to the water playground at a local public pool. The day was warm and sunny, so we spent hours splashing and wading in the cool, refreshing water. Almost every day the first few weeks home, we had an invitation from friends to swim somewhere different. I mentioned this as a point of gratitude and delight to the Christian Science practitioner we'd been praying with in support of the adoption process. She wasn't at all surprised by this abundance of generosity, and immediately remarked that our family had been given all the essentials and more—even of playtime in the water. As the Bible says, the "seed is in itself"—God's expression is all-inclusive, and so our daughters "came with their own" supply of goodness, purity, and even friendship (see Gen. 1:11).

I was so glad to hear that! These were my first few weeks as a parent, and I was beginning to wonder how I could sufficiently provide for all the needs and demands of our children. Right there before me was the joyous evidence of how God provides for each of us, always, perfectly.