Lord Jesus, there is a child we do not know, but You do.
We do not know this child’s name. We do not know the color of those eyes, the sound of that laugh, the shape of those tiny hands, or the personality that will someday fill a room. We do not know whether this child has already been conceived, whether a tiny heart is beating somewhere tonight, or whether this precious life exists only in Your eternal knowledge and will come into being sometime in the future.
But You know.
Before we can recognize this child, You know this child completely. Before we can whisper a name, You know the name. Before we can hold those little hands, You know every fingerprint. Before we can wonder what gifts this child will possess, You already know the vocation and purpose for which this unique soul has been created.
And so, Jesus, we entrust to You the child You know.
If this little one is already growing beneath a mother’s heart, go where we cannot go. Protect that tiny body as it forms. Guard the beating heart, the developing brain, every little finger and toe. Surround mother and child with Your protection.
Bless the woman carrying this baby. She is not merely part of the answer to someone else’s prayer. She is Your beloved daughter. You know her fears, her circumstances, her relationships, her needs, and the decisions she may face. Surround her with people who genuinely love her and respect her dignity. Provide what she needs. Protect her from fear, coercion, loneliness, violence, desperation, or anyone who would treat either her or her child as anything less than infinitely precious.
Bless the child’s father as well. Give him courage, wisdom, responsibility, tenderness, and respect for both mother and child.
If this child has not yet been conceived, Lord, we place even that unknown future into Your hands. Bless the circumstances through which this life will someday begin. Protect every person who will become part of this child’s story.
If adoption will someday join this child’s story to ours, prepare all of our hearts long before we meet.
Teach us that adoption does not erase what came before us. Help us honor the people, relationships, history, culture, joys, sacrifices, and sorrows that belong to this child’s story. Give us hearts large enough to love the whole child and not merely the part of the story that begins when the child enters our home.
And if the child we have imagined is different from the child You intend to place before us, free us from our expectations. Do not let us love an imaginary child so tightly that we fail to recognize the real one.
Mary, Mother of Jesus, wherever this little one may be, cover the child beneath your mantle. If there is a mother carrying this baby tonight, cover her too. Stay near her in every fear, every decision, and every sacrifice.
St. Joseph, you protected a Child whose life entered yours through a mystery you did not create or control. You received Jesus as gift. Protect this child with that same quiet fatherly love.
Guardian angel of this little one, remain near. Guard this child in all his or her ways and lead this precious soul always toward God.
And Jesus, when the waiting becomes unbearable, remind us of this beautiful truth:
We may not know where our child is.
We may not know when our child will come.
We may not know how our family will finally be formed.
But there is nowhere in this world—or in the future—that is outside Your sight.
So when we cannot reach our child, You can.
When we cannot protect our child, You can.
When we cannot whisper, “You are loved,” into our child’s ear, whisper it for us.
And if one day Your Providence brings us face-to-face, and we finally look into the eyes we have prayed for without seeing, let us remember with wonder that this child was never unknown.
You knew this little one all along.
Until the day we can love this child with our hands, our voices, and our daily lives, let us love through prayer.
Jesus, love this child for us.
Mary, mother this child where we cannot.
Joseph, protect this child where we cannot.
And if it is God’s holy will, guide our paths toward one another until the child You know becomes the child we finally know too.
Always remember Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Holy Family! Help us to be a holy family and pray for us!
Amen.