The first time I saw my daughter was when a woman named Ushabin brought her to me at an ashram in India. As she placed that precious and beautiful six week old angel in my arms, I could not contain the tears that refreshed my cheeks as I was virtually overwhelmed with joy, gratitude, concern and fear. There was joy over the peaceful beauty of the precious child in my arms. There was gratitude I felt to God and those whom He had guided to that very place where I was then standing with my soon to be daughter. There was concern for her health since she had not been under the care of a physician since birth. There was fear that the navigation of the bureaucratic morass would be insurmountable and the adoption might not happen. I chose to embrace joy, gratitude, and concern and to relegate fear to a compartment somewhere beneath the realm of possibility. Had I done otherwise, fear would have taken its place center stage and rendered the episode a one act play. Instead, joy and gratitude fueled the engine that allayed concern with attention to what was needed for the health of my daughter. Today, she is a healthy woman in her mid twenties, a dedicated mother of a beautiful daughter, and filled with dreams of what possibilities lie ahead. Had that day in May of 1987 not been one on which I made a conscious choice to relegate fear to its proper place, today’s memories would be vastly different. Today I choose joy and gratitude. Memories are made of that!
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