Yesterday was a special day around here. It wasn’t a birthday. It was an anniversary of sorts.

A year ago yesterday, August 31st, we finalized our adoption of Max. I wrote briefly about it here. It seemed like such a formality at the time because the truth is he was ours the moment the Child Protection Investigator carried him up the stairs to our apartment in Jupiter.

These last twelve months have been full of changes. A new job, new church, new home, a new (old) community to name a few. There are a million things I could share about this whole process and maybe sometime I will. But for now, let me correct one very common misconception.

Frequently, Jennifer and I will have someone comment to us about how “blessed” Max is to have been placed in our family. And, I suppose that is true. The life he has now with us is without a doubt more stable and nurturing.

But, when compared to the blessing that he has been to us it isn’t even a contest. Here’s what I mean.

Major life events have a way of expanding your view of God. When you get married, for instance, you begin to understand God in a new way. The Bible speaks about God loving the church like a husband loves his bride. You can feel the implications of that when you look at your spouse. Then you have kids and you begin to understand God a little differently as he relates to us as our Father. The list goes on and on.

The same is true when you adopt a child.

The Bible speaks about God adopting us as his children and bringing us into his family. It says that his love for us is literally no different than the love he has for Jesus (John 15:9). Go ahead and think about that for a minute or two.

Bringing Max into our family has helped us understand that. Sure, conceptually I get it. But, living life with Max day in and day out over the last 2 1/2 years has really pressed home what this means. There is no difference in the way I think about my daughter and my son. Both are gifts to us. Both are blessings TO us and we hope to be blessings to them.

So yeah. We feel like the fortunate ones. Thanks Max. Here’s to another year. We love you buddy.