Happy Birthday Phoenix!
Today is his 3rd birthday. It has been quiet today other then the sniffling and sneezing that has accompanied this 'wonderful' cold. The weather is dreary, and I hear a crow cawing. Aren't they supposed to go south or something?
Anyways, my head is all over the place today but my heart is generally at peace, despite not having seen him this year. I am ok with that, and kinda grateful to have a year that hasn't sent me into a complete depression.
That is not saying that i will not cry, or have a moment when 3:30pm rolls around, or doesn't mean I won't feel a little sad, because it is ok.
It is alright to grieve. It is ok to allow those… [more]
Drawing a Line Between Family and Family
I peel the top half of a banana and hold it out to my little boy. The little man, who is about two months shy of his second birthday, claps his hands and takes it from me with a smile. He bites off the top inch then holds it out for me to take a bite. I tell him that I don’t want any, so he chomps off another piece and chews on it. He makes his way over to his baby sister, lying on a blanket, and holds the banana out for her to take a bite. Of course, Baby Sister doesn’t even have teeth, nor has she started on solid foods, so she just looks up at him… [more]
The Sound of Love
As I walked to the Food Pantry a few weeks ago, I was praying, struggling with some things that have been heavy on my heart recently. Things that God himself has brought up from the storage room of my spirit for me to work through. I asked for encouragement, anything to show his love for me for a moment, something real and that was totally him.
As I stood in line, about to update my Facebook status with something about hell and lines, Tara called.
Tara is his mom, has been his mom since he came home to her and her husband and already bustling household on a cold January day in 2009.… [more]
Family’s Reaction to Adoptive Family Involvement in Wedding
I still have weddings on the brain! In the last two posts, I have written about my son’s adoptive family being involved in our wedding and both his adoptive mom and sister were in our wedding party. As I stated in one of those posts, asking my son’s adoptive family to participate in our wedding and to be there, felt only natural to me however, I did worry about how other people would react.
At that point in time, Charlie was about one and a half years old. My parents hadn’t been very involved in the open adoption visits or anything at that point. They’d only seen him from a far once since he was born when A and her family came to visit Noah… [more]
More on Adoptive Family Involvement in Weddings
In my last post, I wrote about some of the wedding related moments that I have been able to share with my son and his adoptive Mother as a result of open adoption. As I mentioned in that post, A was a bridesmaid in our wedding. But not only was it important to me for her to be a part of our wedding, it was important to me that N, Charlie’s sister by adoption, be a part of our wedding as well. I asked N to be a flower girl in our wedding.
You may be wondering why was it important for me to have Charlie’s sister, N, be an integral part of our wedding party. Several friends asked me that when I was planning… [more]
Wedding Moments in Open Adoption
My niece is getting married on Saturday. I have been helping her plan the wedding since she and her fiancé’ set the date. I’ve been so busy this past week helping her with last minute details for the wedding and preparations that can only be done in the week prior to a wedding. She’s also had two bridal showers, both of which I have attended, one of which I was in charge of in the past two weeks.
The showers and wedding preparations have of course reminded me of my own bridal showers and wedding that were just five years ago this month! Feeling nostalgic, I was just looking at some photos of my bridal shower and wedding when I realized that they were even more… [more]
