Monday, November 25, 2013

11 Years Ago Today

Today is JieJie's adoption day, or Gotcha Day as it is sometimes known.

So last night, JieJie, who is now almost 12 and almost as tall as I am, brought me a children's book and insisted I read it to her.  I looked at her selection:  Happy Adoption Day by songwriter John McCutcheon, a fellow adoptive parent who lives over in Charlottesville.  This is unusual.  If I had suggested reading it, I'm guessing the response would be "a baby book? Whatever, mom."

But the girls got into their sleeping bags on the floor of our room, their favorite place to sleep of late, MeiMei turned off her Junie B Jones audiobook, and I read the book (which is actually song lyrics with illustrations).  Just like a song, it has a refrain:

But out of a world so tattered and torn
You came to our house on that wonderful morn
And all of a sudden this family was born!
Oh Happy Adoption Day!

I have mixed feelings about the first line (not sure I want to characterize her entire birth country that way).  The second line is a convenient rhyme but I'm pretty sure it wasn't morning when we got home.  But that third line…so crazy, as I read the refrain for the third time, something big jumped right up in my throat to the place where lumps go.  I stopped reading, and put my hand over my mouth.  Both girls sat up, and MeiMei said "Mom, are you crying?!?!"  And indeed I was, it just bloomed, suddenly.

Why are you crying?  they asked.

Because I always knew I wanted to be a mom, and sometimes it seemed like it almost wasn't gonna happen, and I love you guys so much, I said.

Oh Happy Adoption Day!

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note:  I haven't been writing as much about the girls out of respect for their privacy as they grow up, though at some point I will write about our China trip in the summer of 2012 which was really great. It's cool to see how many people are still reading about our travels (45 views already today)—thanks!

You can search FTJ for past posts, e.g. China info...

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