The gift of Lucy. AKA someone gave us a baby.

It's Lucy's birthday today.

Every year, I reach into my bureau, and dig out a yellow t-shirt that I can't bear to part with.

I was wearing it the day that she arrived.

To this day, I am hard-pressed to explain the gift of Lucy. I don't understand how she found us. But I know this:

When you are having doubts about whether there is something out there that is bigger than all of us, and is running this show we call life, you need to remember this story. Because it gives me what little faith I have. It is a story as old as time. A woman unexpectedly expecting. A couple who cannot have a child. It didn't used to involve money and lawyers and red tape. It was a woman, and a baby, and a family being formed.

It happens throughout the animal kingdom: caring for a new life you are not biologically responsible for creating is not uniquely human, but trust humans to attach a dollar figure and a bunch of hassle to something so priceless and simple.

The greatest part of the gift of Lucy is the simplicity. We got a phone call asking if we were interested in adoption, and we said yes. We got a phone call a few months later with a few questions about our life and we answered them honestly. We got one last phone call on the morning of April 11th that said "Congratulations, you have a daughter. She is waiting for you in the nursery."

And that, as they say, was that.
No money. No agency. No profile. No interviews. No negotiations. No passports. Just a baby girl. And a mother finding someone to raise her, someone who would love and treasure her and keep her safe. We never met this woman, never spoke with her, never laid eyes on her. She gave birth, said goodbye, and left the hospital.

I know, you think I am leaving something out. I assure you I am not. I filled out the birth certificate, social security application and insurance paperwork at the hospital with the registrar the day Lucy was born, listing our names as her parents -  we received all of the documents in the mail a few weeks later. She had a passport within a month.

We hired a lawyer to file the paperwork, so that everything was done correctly. We didn't need to - but we're human, after all.

Lucy, you are amazing. You are a gift and a treasure. You remind me every day that generosity has no limits, that anything is possible, that there is good in this world - more so now that you are in it.