I’m not Catholic. I’m quite religious – but of a different religion. Yet, I went to mass yesterday for Ash Wednesday.

Why?

Well, it’s like this. My Abby is Catholic. She is 14. She, and her 13yr old Catholic self arrived to our family a year ago. As interesting as it gets sometimes (for the kid, too, I’m sure!), you don’t have to belong to my religion to be my child. Our family includes children worshipping from four other religions than my own.

Abby and I went to a 5:00 mass at the most beautiful church downtown. I even found this photo on Flickr – the same church we went to yesterday! Isn't it pretty? I haven't been to mass in almost 20yrs - but, gosh, you know it was just the same. :-) I wasn't able to do all the kneeling with my bad knee (esp since I just went to physical therapy right before!) - but I noticed Abby very carefully watching me the whole time to see if I really would participate in the service of not.

Yeah, she comes with us to our church. I know a lot of adoptive families that just figure it's their family's church or their family's church (note the lack of options). I suppose I won’t tell them that they’re wrong if it’s working well for them. I've found that a little understanding and encouragement of who the child is -- all of who they are, including religious beliefs -- goes a LONG way in them figuring out if they can finally trust an adult (me) to truly love them.

So, I participated, noting many similarities and some differences. And, I figured that it's pretty cool to be Abby's mom - and everyone else's too. And too much "extra church" for me can't be a bad thing, I don't suppose.