SPIRITUAL ADOPTION REFLECTION

Katrina Yap

Senior D

CL REFLECTION

Every child is a gift from God. Even Jesus himself saw children as blessings. He said, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3)

            As a blessing, adults should accept their children with open hearts. Yet with this gift also comes a responsibility – the responsibility to raise their children in the image and likeness of God.

            As a seventeen year old, I never imagined to given that big of a responsibility, yet I was able to go through a similar experience as my partner, Stefan Wintermahr, and I, participated in a CL activity wherein we had to take care of an egg as if it was our own child. At first, we were not excited about it. We thought it was silly, because after all, who would want to carry an egg around?

            But as witnessed the baptism of our “baby”, we soon realized that this project was no easy ordeal. The egg symbolized the babies yet to be born in the wombs of the mothers. The egg symbolizes all the hopeless babies who were lost through abortion; all those who were never given the chance to live and experience the outside world. As we realized those things, we took our project more seriously. We named our egg “Alejandro”, and we both grew very fond of him. During school days and weekends, we took turns carrying and taking care of the baby.

           

            To be honest, taking care of Alejandro was not easy. He was a fragile little egg, and every day was a risk to keep him from getting baby napped or breaking. As my partner and I went through those difficulties, we also realized how minute they were compared to the difficulties real parents probably faced.

            Because of this project, I have a higher respect for those parents who chose to keep their babies despite many challenges. I have even higher respect for the parents of those whose children ended up making a change in the world. However, at the same time my heart aches for those who weren’t brave enough to see children as a blessing and have decided to abort their children. Moreover, my heart yearns for those children, never given the change to experience the outside world.