Epiphany: In This World

Well, folks, I just had an epiphany, of sorts.

OK, I wasn't the one who had it. My friend had it, and passed it on to me. But I can still claim it as "mine" b/c it relates to our adoption path.

Giving credit where credit is due, I must acknowledge my wonderful friend, yoga teacher/mentor, and (as of late) Intro to Meditation instructor, Kathy Donnelly. Kathy and her husband have three adopted grown sons from Korea, and they also used Catholic Charities of Baltimore. She was asking me the other night, after meditation class, when I thought we might get a referral and then when we might be united with our child. I wasn't sure where she was going with all this, b/c I know I've told her all of this before, but I answered anyway, realizing that people tend to forget that they already asked me this question.

When I told her that we'll hopefully get our referral sometime this summer, and then our child will be in our arms sometime this fall, she then asked, "How old will he be when you get him?" My response was "ummm...the agency says anywhere from 8-12 months, but likely about 10 months."

She paused for a minute, her eyes welled up with tears, and she excitedly grabbed my arm with one hand and placed the other hand to her mouth. She whispered, with an incredible amount of emotion, "Oh, Kathleen, that means that he's in the world. Your baby is in this world!" And she pulled me to her and hugged me fiercely.

When she said that, I kind of froze and got all weepy myself. We looked into one another's eyes, realizing the power of our common connection (and in her eyes, I saw her reminiscing about the three different days when she herself realized this about each one of her own sons!).

I remember thinking "Wow, this will be one of those moments I will never forget...when I realized for the first time that our child had entered this world."

And in classic Kathleen style, I am now weepy all over again! For God's sake!

I feel kind of silly and surprised for not realizing this myself--after all, it involves simple math! ...but wait, no, I take that back. I'm terrible at math. No surprise that Girl Wonder the Editor didn't think about doing the damn math.

Yikes, I'm going to have censor some of these postings when we do end up sharing them with our child!

Happy Valentine's Day to all. We are traveling to PA to see all three of my adorable nieces and my entire family...after a nice dinner tonight with my sweetie at this swanky restaurant in Columbia, MD. What a great way to spend a long weekend!

Whoo-hoo! Welcome to the world, little one!