[…] when I have an eternal perspective, convenience loses its meaning. Because convenience infers that I need ease and my preference in order to live an enjoyed life. So having a child whose needs may limit my convenience may infer that I am suffering. How can I check off a bucket list of dreams and ambitions and sights to be seen when I have a child who cannot walk and who needs sponge bathing and dressing changes every night?
[…] If anything, [Adam’s disability] enables us to see HIS (meaning God) ability to make beauty in the midst of brokenness.
While Adam’s health condition sometimes means the young family is in the hospital when they’d rather be at home or off traveling, their lives are filled with beauty. Suffering does not kill joy, it enhances it.
There are times, of course, when Jessica says she feels compelled to prove to others that Adam deserves his own life. For instance, there was the time a good friend brought someone new to their home, someone who had never met Adam before. Though Adam wasn’t feeling well, Jessica desperately wanted this new person to see that Adam’s life holds value and purpose. She wanted, like any mother, all of her children to sit nicely at the table and behave throughout dinner. But like most families with small children, a calm mealtime is not usually in the cards.
