“You had better be prepared for a long stay.” The medical nurse’s words were designed to jolt my wife and me into recognizing the seriousness of the situation. The previous day we had boarded a plane to fly to another state and attend the birth of the younger of our two adopted daughters.

Part of the domestic adoption process is being matched with a birth mother. For those who want to know the history of a particular birth mother before agreeing to a match, there are medical disclosures available for review, when appropriate. My wife and I noticed that in many cases the birth mothers were on methadone. This is a drug prescribed to those battling drug addiction, in order to keep them off harder illegal drugs.

Shortly after our younger daughter’s birth, she started exhibiting alarming symptoms associated with withdrawal from methadone, and she was moved to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). It was there that the nurse delivered her warning to my wife and me.

As a student of Christian Science, I knew the importance of not being taken in by the material picture or guided by fear. I immediately countered the nurse’s words by mentally saying to myself, “You had better be prepared for a short stay.” This was not based on blind willfulness or wishful thinking, but a recognition that God is the great Physician, as Christ Jesus demonstrated, and is therefore our daughter’s true caregiver. That being the case, she had from God everything she needed for happiness, health, and well-being. In fact, it was God, Spirit, who had made her, and because her substance was spiritual, she could not be touched or harmed by any so-called material substance.

While not yet her legal guardians, my wife and I wanted to support our daughter’s healing and we contacted a Christian Science practitioner for metaphysical treatment. This would uphold our thought as we prayed for release from the fear that confronted us about our daughter’s well-being. We knew that overcoming this fear would help her, and us, more than anything. The Bible says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear” (I John 4:18). We certainly loved our new daughter with all our hearts and we knew that God did even more, being her true Father-Mother. God made us all in Her spiritual image and likeness and could never make Her child subject to addiction.

The only medical treatment our daughter was given in the hospital was a mild sedative in hopes of helping her relax. However, we were advised that more aggressive methods would be necessary if she did not show improvement.

As we continued to pray, we recalled how Christ Jesus loved children and how quickly they responded to his prayers and were healed. The stories of the man with the epileptic son (Matthew 17), the nobleman with the sick child (John 4), and Jairus, whose daughter had died (Mark 5), all came to mind and greatly comforted us. Within 12 hours our daughter was removed from the NICU, though she was kept on the same floor for observation.

At that point my wife and I decided we would take turns staying at the hospital with our daughter around the clock. Our need for a place to stay close by was met beautifully by a nonprofit family and children’s charity that provided housing and meals for my wife, our five-year-old daughter, and me. I took the late-night shift at the hospital and prayed, acknowledging our daughter as the innocent child of God. The Christian Science periodicals and the weekly Bible Lessons from the Christian Science Quarterly were a constant source of encouragement and inspiration. Looking back, it was a holy time.

My wife would often sing hymns to our daughter from the Christian Science Hymnal. A favorite was No. 499. It’s still difficult today to get through it without choking up, since it seemed as if it were written just for us, especially this verse:

Surrounded by love as she was, it was not surprising that our daughter began showing improvement. While we were grateful for all the support we felt, and the kindness of the hospital staff, we were looking forward to taking our baby daughter home with us. However, one day, one of the nurses remarked that if our daughter did not show more rapid improvement, they would put her on an opiate to wean her gradually from the methadone, which could lengthen her stay in the hospital by weeks.

I called the Christian Science practitioner immediately to tell her. The thought that our daughter would be given one addictive substance to overcome another was extremely distressing to me, to say the least. The practitioner helped calm my fears and opened my eyes to see that this scenario was simply a temptation to believe something untrue about our daughter, namely, that she could fall out of God’s care. I knew this was not possible.

Soon after, a great truth dawned on me: Matter is not self-acting. God is omnipotent, and if She is not causing something to happen, it is not happening! God is the only power, and anything seemingly outside of God’s power is merely an illusion. The claim that discontinuing a drug has power to disrupt man’s harmony is false and had no influence over our daughter.

With that realization, all fear drained from my thinking, and I cheerfully went back about my routine of caring for our child. Nothing more was said by the hospital staff about opioids, and one week after our daughter’s birth she was released from the hospital. As we left together as a family, I noticed some surprised expressions from the staff that we were leaving so early. As I climbed into the back seat of my father-in-law’s car between my two daughters, I was beaming with gratitude and joy.

This powerful demonstration of God’s healing power took place over a decade ago. Today this precious daughter is extremely active and exhibits tremendous strength and balance in her tae kwon do classes. She also makes excellent grades in school. I am very grateful for what I call our “crucible experience,” which was a tremendous opportunity to learn more about God and continues to bless our family to this day.