AUNT LILY!

To say that Lily has had an extreme life so far would be putting it very mildly.  Left on the steps of a health club at sixteen days old, she never knew her birth mother.  She spent the first two years of her life in a Chinese orphanage being cared for by her second "mother";  a woman she calls "DAH JAH" when shown her picture. Then last year she finally came home to us, (known in the adoption community as her "forever family"). By the time she was two years old she had been a citizen of two superpower countries.  And now, at the ripe old age of almost three, Miss Lily is going to be an aunt. That's right, sometime around Christmas Blair and Jeff are going to have a baby.  My first baby is having a baby.  It is hard for me to believe.  Not the part about them having a baby. I get that, and I am very excited.  What is hard for me to comprehend, to fathom, to wrap my arms around is the glaring fact that I am going to be... married to a grandmother!

AUNT LILY!

FOR MARSHA

 

I have not blogged in a really long time. I haven't really felt like it, and I had only really planned on doing this thing to keep our friends and family updated while we were in the "bringing Lily home" stage of our lives. However, our wonderful friend Marsha has given me two good reasons to keep it up for a little while longer.  First, she reminded me that this blog will serve as a living record of what is a most extraordinary chapter in  the Chip Cheek Family Chronicles. Second, Marsha has accused me of cutting the apron strings a little too completely when our older kids leave home.   She claims that while our kids are still living at home we hover and dote on them to the point of ridiculousness, but when they leave the nest, we cut off financial support, shut down their rooms, smile and wave ...."see ya"!  While both sides of that may be a slight exaggeration, we do expect our little birds to fly on their own at some point. Anyway, she has also pointed out that I rarely mention our oldest daughter Blair and our son-in-law Jeff in the blog. Personally I do not think it is unusual that I don't spend loads of time talking about the guy who moved my daughter hundreds of miles away and taught her things like how to shoot guns and drive a monster truck.  Don't get me started. 

Last week-end Blair and Jeff came to see us.  We had a fantastic time, and the picture above is from that visit. It is really a remarkable picture. Not because the girls look so beautiful, and they do. It is remarkable because of what the photo represents.  Good grief, my oldest and youngest child are 25 years apart in age. Astounding and exciting! Raise your hand if you can say that! Oh and before you do, it only counts if you still have the same wife you started with. 

Anyway,  I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I have read the book Radical by David Platt.  After I read it, I felt compelled to buy a bunch of copies and pass them along to guys I was sure would be as convicted and excited about the book as I was.  Turns out, not so much. Only a couple of guys were  "moved' by the book.  Fortunately, because of my deep and superior spiritual maturity, I suppose I can understand their reticence, after all, the book is a tough pill to swallow.  In all seriousness, Platt does make some very valid assertions about modern day Christianity, and I have to admit that in many ways I felt like a miserable failure in relation to how I practice my faith after reading the book.  In my mind, I certainly had never done anything really "radical" in living out my life as Christ's follower. But then it dawned on me, "yes I have by golly"!  I flew to the other side of the world and at age 51 and adopted an orphan.  Don't tell me I'm not radical. I'm the man!  And I was feeling pretty good about that thought process until yesterday.  Yesterday, I met a family who was visiting our church for the Global Impact Celebration. The parents were around our age, and have adopted 5, (I'm serious) orphans in the past few years. They already had 3 children. Three of their adopted children are deaf.  This immediately threw me into despair over my minimal radicalness.   Then I found out something that should not have surprised me.  That's right, they were members of David Platt's church in Birmingham. A place where I bet that kind of sacrifice is not so unusual. What kind impact do you think Christians could have on the world if that brand of radical was simply the norm.  Just wondering?

On the lighter side, Lily is fabulous.  She is putting two words together now, and has a fantastic sense of humor.  She laughs all the time and loves her family. Playdough is her favorite toy, and she insists on picking out her clothes, and we let her.  She is sleeping through the night consistently. (At least last week she did.) She loves fast food and starts screaming "fries" to the top of her lungs when we pass a McDonalds. She loves to help me grill out every Thursday night.  Her favorite is grilled bacon. Don't tell me she is not my child. Her transformation is nothing short of miraculous.  

Here are more pictures of Blair and Lily, and maybe one of Jeff! 

Chip

Yes, that's Jeff.

This is Lily wearing the first Easter dress Mimi made for Blair. Mimi lengthened the dress to fit Lily.