The following is a prayer that I used when I found myself having to do staff prayer at my school. I teach at a Catholic Independent school and each Wednesday morning the staff gather in prayer for silent meditation, to collect our thoughts, and pray for those in need. My turn came following the weekend when my wife and I decided to adopt. I ran a random search of the online bible using the word adoption and came up with Moses's story. How could one forget the famous biblical story of one of the most well known biblical figures of the old testament. It may be one of the more famous adoption stories of all time. Shortly after reading it, I felt reassured that our decision to adpopt was the right one.

The following is the prayer I presented.


Exodus 2:5-10

5 Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to
bathe, and her attendants were walking along the
river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and
sent her slave girl to get it. 6 She opened it and saw
the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him.
"This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I
go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the
baby for you?"
8 "Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got
the baby's mother. 9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her,
"Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay
you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him.
10 When the child grew older, she took him to
Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She
named him Moses, [a] saying, "I drew him out of the
water."


Over the past few months my wife and I have been undergoing tests to see about having children, and after many tests and visits, we were informed by our doctor that we may never have children of our own.

As you can imagine it was probably one of the worst days we have shared together. Questions swirled in our heads. Doubt and sadness became the umbrella that was held over us. Both of us quietly creeping through the families of our friends, conversations and news of children and pregnancies, all of which we shared in rejoicing, but also breathing a longing sigh quietly to each other.

Despite our deep sadness, all could not be lost. We decided that we needed to look amongst our own reeds and search for a basket that has been sent up stream. We recently decided to tell as many people as we knew about our desire to adopt because we realized that there is a baby out there who feels the same about the search for his or her own parents.

Perhaps all people need to stop and look for these kinds of bundles around them when they feel as though they have been shrouded in darkness. Reaching out to those around them only create nets that can help catch those who are in need.
During this Lenten time perhaps we need to listen to the difficult messages God sends us and learn to embrace his hidden message of hope and joy being sent down stream, instead of hearing only that which we want to.

Intentions
Let us pray that all potential parents and babies searching for each other eventually find their way to each other.
For this we pray to the Lord.