America, the Jesuit publication. Years ago – it has to be well over 20 – I did some financial planning for an older couple in somewhat the same situation. That child was brought up by the couple while this little girl spends most of her time with her (biological) mother.
How I learned to love and raise the child from my husband’s affair
I knew I was one of the sinners so beloved by the Lamb of God that he had lived, submitted to an excruciating death and risen again for our sakes. Like my remorseful husband, like the baby’s mother, like every person past the age of reason, I had through malice, negligence or weakness done things to harm my relationships with God and other people. And I believed the forgiveness God offers all penitents, and the grace of God’s presence, make it possible for new life and love to grow out of the destruction human beings wreak. My sense of solidarity with other sinners, and my trust in divine grace, guided me to renew my marriage and to seek some kind of relationship with the baby’s mother, whose complicated feelings about her future I could only imagine. And it motivated me to protect and care for the baby who, unlike the adults in her life, had done no wrong. I knew Jesus Christ had loved and welcomed children and continues to call and empower his disciples to do the same. That night, I responded to the fraction anthem by praying—and starting to trust—that by God’s mercy, with God’s help, I could love my husband’s daughter as my own.
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