One month..and a day

Well, we've been home a month - which I can't even believe - and things have continued to go well. I feel my 4 year old will be in therapy soon because I feel all I do is yell at him....but today was actually a good day so now I don't feel obligated to dwell on the struggles. We'll just bask in the glow of a fun outing to visit friends and visions of Ian holding Jesse's hand as they walked up an Indian Mound (a large bump randomly in the grass on my college campus) I will post a picture so everyone can see (when Sam' downloads them). It was Jesse's first visit to Beloit College, which is a right of passage as far as I'm concerned. He will also be enthusiastically introduced to Carnegie Mellon in the Fall - just as Ian was. Ian claims he's never going to college because he doesn't want to leave me - instead he wishes he can just drive a package truck. I told him 1) You'll want to go to college when you understand what it really means, and 2) Driving a package truck is fine, but you will not be living at home while doing it. :)

During all the pre-adoption education people prepare you for those ignorant, rude, or just plain curious strangers who feel the right to ask you anything their little heart desires. I've heard some horror stories about what strangers will actually say to people like: "How much did she cost?", "What if the mother wants her back?", and just things like "My mother knew this women who's daughter adopted and the baby was not right......" blah blah blah. So of course, we were prepared - we were armed with responses.......we have not gotten one comment AT ALL!!!!! I'm a little disappointed because I'd love to talk about Jesse and his heritage and all we went through and survived. I'd love to educate the world on adoption and the wonders it brings to your life....but no one has asked. We were asked once if Jesse is Hispanic - which leads me to believe that many people might think that....which is not weird....which would not lead to empowering conversations about adoption. I guess we'll never know.

I did however have one encounter that has been weighing on my heart, unfortunately this was not by a stranger. Long story short....I made a comment about how I needed some chocolate - being a new mother of two. Kinda joking - mostly not (because everyone know chocolate solves stress and headaches) :) The response I got was "Oh, you're not really a mother of two unless you went through all the rig-a-ma-role" (gesturing to his belly and such). I was stunned...thankfully Sam jumped in and said "I think we went through plenty of rig-a-ma-role".....I still just don't know what to say. I'm Jesse's mother - I'm Ian's mother - I am a mother of two - conversation OVER!!!!!!

Happy note: Jesse received his welcome to the United States letter today from INS. It was fun to see and read the little note of a government form letter.

Sorry this is long - I hadn't posted because I didn't think I had anything to say :) I was wrong.