What a weekend we’ve had – full and great! Friday evening was pretty routine except that we chose to dine out at the best fast-food restaurant on the planet – Chic-Fil-A. Great food and a great study in marketing if you’re into that like I am, but I digress…

Saturday started off pretty good. A trip to Wally World with the kids while my wife stayed behind to vacuum (kids present doesn’t make for ideal dirt-nabbing conditions). Normally, I like to go to the store, but normally, it is just me and the boy. Add one 14-month old to the mix and you’re all of a sudden trying to play a zone defense in a store that acts like a third opponent. By the end of the 90-minute ordeal, I was just about done and it wasn’t even 10:00am yet!

Sound familiar? Yes? That’s great, but more on that in a minute.

Saturday was also host to one of TWO birthday parties for the boy because trying to cram everyone into one big party at our house would involve a paddy wagon for me and the Mrs. This party was just for family, and the cousins were the main attraction. Before they arrived, we thought it important that the kids take a nap. No problem for the little one – she’s a great sleeper, but the boy fought it the whole way. He was simply too excited to see his cousins and couldn’t wait to run and play like banshees. I’m sure you can relate…right? That’s fantastic!

The party came; presents were ripped open; and grandma’s cake was eaten (mostly just the icing) while I watched with pride. All of this was very normal for a family that has its roots in some very abnormal beginnings. Adoption is anything but normal, but my kids and the relationship we have with them is just like any other and that makes me swell up even more.

God is the great normalizer – taking the absurd and changing it to the amazing and making it feel like it should have been that way all along. I’m grateful to my Father for my family. I couldn’t have designed it any better with a million years time. Oh, we have our encounters with the world where we are reminded of the special DNA of our family, but that only keeps us grounded and ensures that He gets the credit for it all.