Sheep Print

In June of last year I posted this:

Black Baby, White Mama

Last week while we were at the Shaker Village, we saw this:

It made me cry.

Sometimes I have doubts about adopting transracially. I wonder if we are doing the right thing. Some say that it is not "natural" for a white family to raise a black child. They argue that there are just too many differences between the races. Having never been there, it is hard not to wonder if they are right.

Then God comforted me with the gift of this image. Even in nature, he reminded me, he gives black babies to white mamas. They are both sheep. They are exactly the same on the inside. It just so happens that the wool of one is a different color than the wool of the other. There is nothing weird or unnatural about it. They are a family, just the way that God intended.

Lord, make us a family with the child that you have called us to love. Help us to see no difference but the color of our "wool."

I had been planning for a while to frame the photograph above to put on the wall in B's bedroom. Instead my creative hubby offered to do something better for me. He made me this beautiful image:

He used hand carved stamps and made it using the "block printing" technique. This image still makes me cry.

Underneath, I put one of my favorite verses these days, one that I cling to often:

"He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young."

- Isaiah 40:11