"There is a Light in Your Eyes"

Richard Avedon once said that "Each picture is accurate. No picture tells the truth." As I stare into the eyes of our little Mia, I can't tell you how this axiom resonates with me. With just 3 pictures and some cryptic, state-produced notes of Mia's life to go on, we have little context to understand the deep pool of her eyes. Are they melancholy? Tired? Confused? Irritated? Or was the camera just seconds late to her generous smile?

Alas, we're cautious to try. But suffice it to say - as Karin Evans has so astutely observed about girls like Mia, "The girls gazing into the camera are braver than children should have to be. And yet their spirits peek through...." She concludes the thought by adding, "What a difference a little encouragement could make." This is why I post.

The very day that we got Mia's package (or at least I think it was the very day), I heard a song on the radio with the chorus, "There is a light in your eyes." I immediately thought of her. Not for the pictures themselves, but for the fatherly hope I have for her ....for the trust I have in the Lord over her life...and for how, I pray, the love from my own heart will burst out through her eyes.

The tune is by Matt Kearney and it's called "Breathe in and Breathe Out". Here's a few lines that I've found particularly poignant: If everyone goes away/I will stay...I'm not letting go/You hold the other line/Cause there is a light, In your eyes, In your eyes...

Hold on, Hold tight/If I'm out of your sight and everything keeps moving on, moving on/ Hold on, Hold tight/Make it through another night/Everyday, there comes a song/With the dawn