Today’s guest post is by Jens at Adventures in Double. ?The majority of my adoptive parent friends have children from Russia, however Jens is an exception to the norm. ?She has the most beautiful identical twin girls from Vietnam. ?I know what adopting one small child was like, but I can’t imagine brining home two 5 month old babies. ?Like all of us, Jens and Conor had their struggles as new parents, but they found the magic moments in the small things in life. ?Isn’t that what it’s really all about?
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When Conor and I decided to adopt we always wanted, strived for, hoped for the magic moment or those magic moments you associate with adoption. The first being getting your dossier together, 2nd the “call” for your referral and then the big gotcha, metcha, family, whatever you call it day you meet your child and hold them and hug them and kiss them for the first time.
What I don’t think anyone explains is that your life with this and in my case these children is an amazing journey full of magic moments.
Our gotcha day, which we call family day, was December 11th, 2006 in Hanoi Vietnam. It was hot and humid to us, cold and damp to the Vietnamese. We were shuffled from a van to an orphanage to a building in the city with a restaurant and market for a snack and then to an office building for the G&R ceremony. Honestly, I recall this as being just a day of sheer and utter joy and overwhelming exhaustion which seems to be never ending. The G&R was a blur. With Mimi and Cammie being our first children we barely were functioning and I remember signing something, taking a picture and being dropped off as parents back to the hotel. We left at 11am childless and arrived back at 5 a family of 4!
Back at the hotel we had a second to realize that we were now the parents of twin baby girls aged 5.5 month. We stripped them naked, bathed them, feed them and let it soak in, there was a magic moment sitting in a hotel room, eating room service off a cart with 2 sleeping infants close by. (This would be the only time they slept while in Viet Nam and for the next 9 months.) The overwhelming aspect took over and we ate quietly and thoughtfully, in shock and awe, utterly terrified and strangely completely fulfilled.
My life since Mia and Cameron have become part of it has been hard and easy and magic. The magic came in sweet sleepy moments, to giving warm babas to hungry baby? girls, to warm open mouth baby kisses, to army crawling, to first steps, to first “I lub Us”, to finding my footing as the girls mama and the girls finding their footing with me.? Basically, all the wonderful things that come along with being a parent.
I always just thought that the magic moments would be the day we were handed our most precious gifts, It never occurred to me the magic of adoption lives through my daily life, daily moments, every second, and for the rest of our lives.
beautiful post…