Yesterday the Rev. Denise Tracy spoke about the unending joy she feels from when she first met each of her three adopted children. Frequently someone will say to a new mother, “Don’t you just love them when they are an infant, or one or two.” Or something like, “Enjoy them now. Just wait.” My husband usually argues with the speaker saying that he enjoys each of his children at whatever age they are right now. He would never want a child, any child but especially his children (now adults) to not develop into their full potential. He enjoyed each stage.

• Diaper changing, middle of the night feedings and those first smiles
• The terrible twos and all those nos.
• First moments of school and the excitement of learning new things
• Early morning battles over what to wear and getting out on time for a bus
• Growing independence, the ultimate goal
• Reading books that the child loved
• Long discussions in the car on important topics
• Off to college and coming home to celebrate holidays
• Sharing articles and photos and quick notes via Facebook or email
• Spending time hiking or cooking

Perhaps the greatest thing has been watching the now adults want to make the world a better place. Earlier this week you may have read our daughter Sarah’s take on that. And we are so very proud of her real desire to match her career with wanting to help others.

We raised them that way. It is probably fair to say that I married my husband because of his strong commitment to social justice. Which is something he got in his household and at his temple, Congregation Sinai in Chicago. The Reform Movement has been known for its commitment to ethics and social action. This commitment is my husband’s passion. It is not uncommon for us to serve at a soup kitchen, run a children’s program at a family shelter, build a house with Habitat for Humanity, be leaders of a Girl Scout troop, rebuild a hiking trail, build a playground. Almost everything we do “for fun” has been one kind of project. Even starting the Merrimack Valley Project, a community organizing model, on our dining room table was fun. And it provided a group of lifelong friends, laughter and a chance to do real advocacy on issues we were passionate about. Jobs, hunger, homelessness, fire protection, grocery stores and food deserts.

Sometime during rabbinical school there was an article that came out in Time or Newsweek about the spirituality of America. Turns out about 90% of America believed in G-d. But how we acted out our spirituality differed greatly. One way on the list was serving at a soup kitchen. I had never thought of it as spiritual. It was just something we did because it was the right thing to do. I never thought of serving at soup kitchen as something that brought me joy. It was just something we did because it was the right thing to do. But it does. Time after time after time.