I'm staying with friends in Los Angeles. Yesterday morning they woke up to a call that said their baby was ready if they wanted her.
My friends have been on a waiting list for three years to adopt a child. Two days ago, a young mother dropped her two day old baby girl off at a fire station. The city of LA has a law saying that mothers who don't want to raise their newborns can let their babies go at a police station or fire department. This was the baby my friends were being offered.
They said yes.
They went to bed the night before without a thought of a new born. They woke up to being instant parents.
My friends went to the hospital to pick her up and came home three hours later with their baby daughter. They seemed stunned by the circumstances. We took turns holding her. We were amazed at her presence.
It made me think about how we never know what's going to happen in the next moment. We wake up thinking we know what's up for us. But life has a mind of its own.
I was thinking about how most of the significant things that have happened to me have been unplanned. They were things that happened to me. Suddenly there they were. I'd be stunned for a moment. And then I'd feel this new thing get absorbed by my life.
This experience with my friends makes me feel a little looser about my expectations for how the day will turn out. It feels good having some openness for the unexpected things that are going to happen in their own way and time.