Adoption Gratitude

I've been pondering this all week and then Christine posted this today.

We have a legacy of adoption in our family. My Dearest was adopted, Nana was actually abandoned in a bassinet to a family that adopted her. There is so much love in our family, and I am so grateful to both birth moms, the sacrifices they made so our family could be the one it is today.

Having just carried Blueberry in my belly for nine months, the idea is fresh in my mind that not only is it traumatic for the baby, but for the birth family too; what a loss the families might feel too, the fathers, the grandparents. I had anxiety when the nurses held her to check vitals and even though I knew they would hand her back, I felt at a loss. My God, how would I feel if I never, ever saw her again? My heart cannot even fathom it. Yet my family is what it is because two mothers made the heart wrenching decision that their babies would be better cared for by someone else and after nine months of knowing and loving their babies, handed them over to very wonderful mothers.

And those mother welcomed the sleepless nights, the poopy diapers, the vomit and fevers, the heartbreaks, the ER visits (lots of them in Dearest Husband's childhood!), and trials of childhood. Those mothers get the love of and get to love those children. Those mothers get a lifetime of motherhood which is a full palate of emotions, grief, joy, anger, fear, and lots of love. Grandchildren, great grandchildren.

So today, I am feeling especially thankful for my mother-in-law and her mother and both of the birth moms that gave Nana and Dearest to our family.

Great Clippers

Lil'Bug really wanted to use scissors this week. So I let her. I even bought her her own pair of blunt tip kid scissors. She clipped and clipped and snipped all day, until the floor was littered with paper and glue and paint. An explosion of motor skills and creativity. Lovely.

Until.

Until she cut her own hair. That's a right of passage, isn't it? I was right there with her and she was simple too quick for me to stop her. She looked at me in amazement and said, "Mama, my hair is falling out?" Aghk. Luckily, she merely cut more of those stupid layers that the multiple Great Clips hair "artists" butchered her hair with so, really, you can't tell.

The bright side is that at age three she has a marketable skill, she can cut hair for Great Clips! Ha. (For those who don't remember we gave instructions for NO LAYERS and the hair cut lady cut lots of layers so we went to a GC across town and asked a different lady to fix it but cutting it really short to get rid of the layers and she cut MORE LAYERS AND GAVE LIL'BUG A SUCKER AND THEN TOOK IT AWAY FROM HER WHEN SHE STARTED CRYING! OMG).

Still, Dearest had been skeptical about letting Lil'Bug had scissor privilage. Upon seeing the carnage of her hair on the floor, he reminded me of his objections. Bah. He turns to her and asks, "Lil'Bug, how old are you?"

"Three!"

"Thank you sweety, now I won't have to do an I was right dance for Mama," he snickered.

Hmph.

Caterpillar Buddy, the Eulolgy

Caterpillar buddy cocooned, but he never emerged. That was weeks ago. Yesterday Lil'Bug realized there was something wrong with his "coon" and I explained to her what happened. She cried. She's never had a pet or a loved one die. She'd seen movies where characters die and I think she somewhat understands the concept, but still, her heart hurt her to know that caterpillar buddy was dead. We set him out in a shady place for the wind to take him to heaven. That was her idea.

Goodbye caterpillar friend. You were very special to my sweet child. May you eat lots of broccoli leaves and flutter with delicate wings on the breeze.

Slug baby!

The first photo reminded me of the stylized baby photos that studios do. LOL. Anyway, this is our bug find for the week!