Are You My Mother?

A childhood favorite, one that still shows its face around our house once in a while (even though it has been 30+ years of its purchase) is the precious storybook my mom and I decided would be the best to share with Tonio and help to teach him to read this summer.  Every night for the past 5 weeks I have been able to read "Are You My Mother?" at bedtime and then fall off to sleep.  Its connections to all that's happening in his life and mine collide in this one rendition of a baby bird looking for his mother.

The mother bird knows her baby is soon to come and she flies off to get food for him.  The egg hatches before the mother returns and the baby bird walks off to find his mother.  He searches all over asking other animals if they are his mother and finally ends up back in his nest in time for the mother to return with food for her baby.  The repeated question, "Are You My Mother?" and final exclamation of the story, "You are my mother!" have now been memorized by Tonio and it gives me such a smile and butterfly in my stomach when I hear him say it as I anticipate the upcoming day when I get to share the reality of his questions. Its not just a storybook, it's Tonio's story...and the end is soon to come when he can say, "You are my mother!"

During this time with Tonio my days are filled with getting him on and off the bus, eating meals together, doing homework and extra English lessons, exploring his interests in music/tools/foods, learning more about his therapy needs and nurturing a spiritual relationship with God.  I have a vision of what's to come and all I can say is that it energizes me and gives me a sense of purpose as I spend myself satisfying his needs.  We are all called to this and I find such joy in having it realized through adoption and becoming a mother.  

Isaiah 58:10:
 "and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry 
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, 
then your light will rise in the darkness, 
   and your night will become like the noonday"