Never Would Have Imagined...

If you would have asked me ten or fifteen years ago if I would have a garden someday, I would have quickly told you, "No."  (And I'd have likely laughed out loud, too.)  That just wouldn't have seemed like something for me.  Over a decade ago, I barely liked getting my hands dirty.  It wasn't that I didn't like to work...I just didn't love getting the dirt under my fingernails (in a literal sense).  I had no real reason to garden.  No desire.  It just didn't seem like fun.  Or worth it.

But fast-forward to now, and you'll discover an ironic fact.  This is our third year of having a garden up and running in the Hershey household.  Just a small one...in a flowerbed -- turned garden...in our backyard.

And I LOVE it.

There's truly something so amazing about planning out a garden.  Planting seeds.  Putting up a fence.  Watering.  And waiting.  Watching the little seeds grow and develop into a beautiful...and edible...creation.  There's something so fulfilling about it.

This time of year gets me excited.  It's been a weekend of beautiful weather.  And thus, we were provided with just the right amount of time and just the right amount of sunshine and warmer temps to get our garden started for another year.

And another aspect that warms this momma's heart is how Mya gets excited about it.  (She cannot WAIT for the broccoli to grow.  I hate to tell her, but it's gonna be awhile...but EVENTUALLY it'll be well worth the wait.)  I love the anticipation.  And the outcome...even though it can require a lot of time, energy, and work.  There's something extra delicious about fresh vegetables and fruits.

But there's more to this story.

I love the special bond that having a garden has created between us and Mya...and her birthmom.  You see, back when we first met her birthmom at a local restaurant, and she told us that she wanted us to parent her child...there was something she shared in our "getting to know you" conversations that struck me.

She asked if we had a GARDEN.

It seems like a random question to ask.  But for her, a garden represented wonderful memories from her childhood.  And I sensed that this was something she hoped her child...our child...could also have as a childhood memory.

When we brought Mya home and settled into our routine, I remember this detail of our conversation with Mya's birthmom.  It kept returning to my mind.  And it became our springboard for actually making a garden a reality for our little family.

We want Mya to share this bond with her birthmom.  And I love how Mya already has an excitement about another summer garden this year.  Our garden's purpose, in a way, serves as more than just a plot of land for fresh foods.  It serves as a common thread, continuing to bond two worlds together:  Mya's biological family and Mya's adoptive family.  And it makes me so happy to know that we can do this for Mya.  And for her birthmom, too.

I love how we continue to learn and grow in life.  We're stretched.  To try new things.  And for me, gardening was a big stretch at first.  But isn't it amazing how those stretching experiences can so often unfold into beautiful things that we would have never known about or been exposed to or even tried...without the push we had to try it in the first place?  I'm so thankful for our garden and all that I've learned about myself, God's creation, and how the harvest we reap is so worth the wait.