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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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MY HERO FOR THIS WEEK…...

We’re spending a week with my daughter and her husband in Lincoln, Nebraska—the real attraction is Sophia, the first granddaughter, of course. Watching my little girl care for her own babe brings a special kind of pride and admiration, and she’s gone through a lot for this baby.

But, tonight on WITTINGSHIRE.COM, I was directed to a story that took my breath away, for the quality of self-sacrificing love that it displayed.

We’d all go through a lot for our own children - give up things, put up with things, postpone things, even clean up things….. But, what about someone else’s child? What about a virtual stranger?

Elizabeth Fitzsimons and her husband adopted a one-year old little girl in China. When they were given their new baby, they discovered that they hadn’t been told a lot…..

But my mind shifted when I saw one of the women from the agency in a heated exchange in Chinese with the doctors, then with someone on her cellphone. We pleaded with her for information.

“It’s not good,” she said.

A CT scan confirmed that there had been a tumor that someone, somewhere, had removed. It had been a sloppy job; nerves were damaged, and as Natalie grew her condition would worsen, eventually leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. Control over her bladder and bowels would go, too; this had already begun, as indicated by her loose sphincter. Yes, she had a form of spina bifida, as well as a cyst on her spine.

Incredibly, this couple refused to leave Natalie in China….refused to take a substitute. They wept, but they acted in love - they took Natalie home.

I knew this was my test, my life’s worth distilled into a moment. I was shaking my head “No” before they finished explaining. We didn’t want another baby, I told them. We wanted our baby, the one sleeping right over there. “She’s our daughter,” I said. “We love her.”

Matt, who had been sitting on the bed, lifted his glasses, and, wiping the tears from his eyes, nodded in agreement.

Now, three years later, this remarkable woman can say

Our decision was right because she was our daughter and we loved her. We would not have chosen the burdens we anticipated, and in fact we declared upfront our inability to handle such burdens. But we are stronger than we thought.

READ THE WHOLE THING and thank God that there are people in this world like the Fitzsimons…....then determine to ask for power to do likewise in your own life.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/19 at 11:00 PM

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