Spiritual Adoption – Week 1

Hooray! This week marks the very beginning of your “spiritually adopted” baby’s life! It’s time to start praying every day that the baby be born in 9 months and be able to live on earth – just like you! You probably will never meet this baby on earth, but in heaven you will find out who he or she is. Fun!

This week, your baby is even smaller than the size of a period at the end of a sentence – like this one.

At first, every baby is made up of a single cell, but this cell soon starts dividing into more and more and more and more and more cells! Some cells become skin and some become hair and some become organs like the heart and lungs and brain – everything comes from that first single cell.

In several days, your baby will implant in the side of his or her mother’s womb! This means that he attaches to the wall of the womb, which is a soft and cuddly place to be while the baby keeps growing and growing until he or she is ready to be born.

The Church teaches us that “every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God” (CCC 2319). Because we are each made in the image and likeness of God, from the very moment a baby is created he or she is very precious and loved by God! God creates everyone for a special reason which He alone knows – we have to find out what our special purpose is by living our lives.

This week, think of the Annunciation, when God sent the archangel Gabriel to ask Mary if she would be the mother of Jesus. Mary said, “Yes!”

Then, the Holy Spirit came over the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus was conceived in her womb. Think of it: even though He is God, He was the same as the little baby you’ve adopted, because Jesus is fully human, too! He was also the size of a dot at the end of a sentence, and just like your little baby He completely depended on His mother for care and nourishment to grow and develop.

Although Mary knew that she was pregnant right from the beginning because the angel told her, at this point in development most parents don’t know about their babies yet! The baby is just too small!

Remember to say a prayer for the parents of your baby. Soon, they will learn about this wonderful and special addition to their lives!

Pope Saint John Paul II writes that “the joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is… seen to be the foundation and fulfilment of joy at every child born into the world” (Evangelium Vitae 1). Jesus’ birth teaches us the joy which we should have at the birth of every single baby, and we should have this joy for every unborn baby, too! Pray that your baby’s parents can experience joy at their baby’s introduction to the world, and then love and cherish him or her.

If you haven’t taken our fun-filled quiz about the development of the baby in the womb, take it now to see how much you know now – don’t worry: you’ll learn all of these things in the next 9 months during your Spiritual Adoption Prayer Adventure!

DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL

Each bi-weekly email will include a journal, so you can learn about your own unborn journey by talking to your parents and family! You can download our printable journal pages here.

BABY VIDEO