The Top of Rockerfeller Center, New York, '07. This was a fun day in Manhattan. I hope someday to skate on that rink. Anyone want to join me? Green in honor of your Mom. After we settled into Groveland your Mom and I started to try to have another baby. Your Mom got pregnant in '89. We were thrilled. Sadly she miscarried, a hurt that filled our home for a long time. We fled the holidays that year, taking Zach up to Sugarloaf that Thanksgiving. It tested us in a lot of ways. Its easy to be hopeful and believe your Faith when life is good. It takes character to retain your beliefs in the face of loss. Your Mother is one of the few people I know with more resilience than me. Little did we know the great gifts God was planning for us all. We applied to an adoption agency and in '90 met our baby boy, Jeremy. He had/has enormous brown eyes and a heart warming smile. We immediately fell in love with him. The whole process of international adoption is complicated, and laborious. Your Mom filled out countless forms and then you wait......Each Friday we'd wait for the call that would have us on a plane to Bogota, Colombia. Finally we found ourselves at the Bogota airport, two English speaking people in the crush of a crowd trying to figure out how to use a pay phone to find out where we could find our driver/guide. Somehow I figured out the correct change, way before cell phones were common, guys, and reached our contact. Nothing had prepared us for the Colombian experience but people were patient, and very kind. At that time it took several weeks to finalize an adoption so Mom and I had to go home. It was pretty awful to leave Jem behind. I returned to Bogata 3 or 4 weeks later with instructions to,"..bring the right baby back.." Talk about pressure! I picked up Jem from the orphanage the day I arrived and took him for a tour of the city. And yes, I did bring the right baby home to Mom and Zach. The second trip had a few adventures, ordering from a local restaurant, traveling by car into the mountains that surround Bogota, dealing with a corrupt Notary Republic, balancing bags and your brother at Miami International Airport. Jem cried for a lot of the flight from Miami to Boston. The flight attendants let me rock/walk him up the aisles to soothe him. You've seen the video of us arriving at Logan weary and relieved. Your Mom immediately scooped Jem out of my arms and our life as a family of four officially started. This was definitely a day of blessings for us. I slept for two days relieved to be home with Jem. Mom and I worked out a schedule whereby he spent only a little time with a baby sitter. Zach was 10 at the time so we had been out of the baby care routine for quite a long time. I was so much better doing the basics the second time around. It helped that Jem was such a great baby. Even as a baby he had a wonderful, loving personality. We decided soon after Jeremy arrived that we wanted one more child. We figured it would be awhile before a baby would become available. Shortly after we signed up though, our Julia arrived. I think the adoption agency liked us so we were given a priority. Now that we knew the process getting Julia home was easier. She was so quiet at first that we thought we had a shy child. That definitely did not last. Assertive could be her middle name...lol. I think.."..what about me.." were her first words:-) She still is the biggest 4 foot 11 inch person in the world:-) She has a 1,000 watt smile that is so very beautiful. She swings a baseball bat like Pedroia, from her heels upward! In '91 we became a family of five. The "babies" became fast friends, inseparable, and loving toward each other. Zach was very protective of them as he grew into his role of ever patient, ever tolerant older brother. Life was so good! When I watch the DVDs of those times it's the best medicine for the heart, soul, and body. It's amazing how the sounds and images transport you to the days when our house was filled with the commotion of our 3 children. Banquets, holidays, soccer games, baseball games, hikes, skiing; all a wonderful tapestry of our family life. This is a good place to end entry eleven. It was my 40th year and life couldn't have been better. Love from my heart to yours, Dad
Imagine if I was the wrong kid!
ReplyDelete