I wrote this last Christmas. It is still my favorite Christmas memory.

My favorite Christmas memory is Christmas 1997. Lisa and I had been experiencing fertility problems for about seven years at that point. Numerous doctor appointments and treatments had resulted in ongoing frustration and disappointment with no solid explanation as to what was going on. We had started to make adoption plans when, a few weeks before Christmas, we turned out to be expecting – a happy surprise for us.

For Christmas that year, we decided to announce our expected arrival to our parents in a unique way. This was to be the first grandchild for my parents and, while the fourth grandchild for Lisa’s parents, this would be the first local grandchild who her parents would get to spend a lot of time with. To announce this, Lisa carefully prepared two special gifts for our moms. For her mom, she wrapped up a pair of baby booties and, for my mom, she wrapped up a “Grandma’s Brag Book” photo album.

When they unwrapped their gifts at our respective family gatherings, there was initial confusion. My mom thought maybe the photo album was for pictures of our dogs. Lisa’s mom didn’t understand the baby booties at all. But, once the explanation was in place, there were shouts and tears of joy and thanksgiving. I will never forget Lisa’s dad saying “Our prayers have been answered.” Truly, prayers were answered that Christmas of 1997 and we have thoroughly loved every second of parenthood ever since our son, Evan, arrived the following summer.

Fast forward to just recently … we were in a store with Evan when he saw a sign and read it to us: “If you ever want to make God laugh, just tell him what your plans for the future are.” Evan was chuckling a bit at this when I asked him if he knew what the sign really meant. His reply was “Sure, it means that God’s plans are always better than our plans.” Wow – our seven year old is reminding us that God’s plan is always perfect, just as we discovered during Christmas 1997.