Daddy Flys Solo

What a difficult job! Jenny is out of town this weekend on a women’s retreat with our church, so I, Daddy, had my first ever solo weekend with Kylynn. The trial is over and the verdict is in: Jenny has a difficult job.

Raising a child all day, every day, isn’t difficult in the sense that trigonometry homework is difficult, or riding a bucking bronco is difficult. No, this is difficult like paddling a kayak across the Pacific Ocean. Paddling isn’t hard and the activity is fun, but it goes on forever. Kylynn continually requires something, whether it’s a kiss where she bumped her head, a snack, attention when she’s bored, or direction to steer her away from some forbidden activity, it just never ends.

One and a half days down, half a day to go. What have I learned? I rediscovered how valuable my wife is. Not only does she do a fantastic job raising our daughter, but a host of other commendable things as well. I wrote a list of her stellar traits tonight so she would have something encouraging to come home to, because the state of our house when she returns will not be encouraging. Here is an excerpt of the list.

I am grateful that Jenny…
- enjoys being outside
- praises people for things they do well
- cooks tasty food regularly
- smiles at me

When I consider the implications of this challenging weekend on my desire to adopt another child, a few ideas come to mind.

First, nothing could dissuade me. Christians are called to care for the orphans and widows, this will play a role. I am adopted into the body of Christ, and so I desire to adopt other people into my nuclear family. The difficulty of the task does not detract from my responsibility or desire to perform it.

Second, we’re up to the challenge. Parenting is a hard task, but the list of reasons I am grateful revealed that Jenny and I are on the same page. What a blessing to be free from the strife of parents arguing about which church to go to, or whether a child should be taught about God at all. How freeing it is to know that I trust Jenny completely with Kylynn’s safety, discipline, education, and character, when I’m not around. Therefore, this team that we formed, it’s solid. We can handle more kids.

Finally, adopting a child will be good for all of our children. I read a blip about our president meeting with the president of the nation we’re adopting from, how they discussed issues of international importance, yet it was under 200 words. No one else will teach my daughter to feel compassion for or awareness of the rest of the world. I trust that by bringing in someone from another country, both children will grow more sensitive to people’s feelings of belongingness, comfortable cross-culturally, and attuned to and engaged with the plight of the rest of the planet.

Kylynn has a wonderful mom, and we pray she will soon have a wonderful sibling.