G's Third Adoption Day
On the one hand, it feels like it was just yesterday that we met him for the first time and the on the other hand it feels like he's been in our family forever.
Just a few weeks after his birthday, we celebrate G's adoption day. We like to keep it a little lower key than his birthday because a lot of kids can feel sad on their adoption days, since it's a reminder of all the things they lost in their early life. We do usually get him a gift and he chooses a dessert though! He requested a Costco cake, but when he was halfway through his slice he paused and said he didn't really like "the bread part." So, uhhhh, next year I think we'll have a pile of whipped cream.
We got him a Mario Kart race track, which seemed really cool but just didn't work like it was supposed to. Plus, some different part of it broke every few weeks! So eventually we returned it and took him to the mall where we let him choose the equivalent value in.... yep, cars. We found this toy store that has toy cars modeled after actual cars and apparently G is a professional car identifier. He knows every brand, what their logo looks like and what their cars look like. (As in, he could identify a Porsche even if there was no Porsche logo on it. You know, like based on the design style.) And he has his top three favorites. They're Corvette, Lamborghini and Tesla if you're curious. This guy is insane about cars.
I also had to complete a post-adoption report this year, which is the first time I've done that (for the first two years a social worker is required to visit us and do it). It was kind of an interesting opportunity to reflect on all the ways he has grown since the adoption. And it really showed me all the ways that WE have grown since his adoption. There's no question that he's made us better parents, and not just better parents, but better people. Also, we just did not know anything back then in those first few months. When you start with a newborn you don't know them, but there's not that much to know, you know what I mean? Babies do have personalities and all, but it's really mostly just food and sleep. But with G, he REALLY had a personality when we started with him. Getting to know who he is and watching him slowly blossom has just been such a privilege. I just feel like the adoption process is so fragile at so many points, you really get the feeling that you could've missed it. We could've missed him. And all the time, I just look at him and think what a gift it is to be his mother.
And then you know he yells at somebody and snatches a toy and the magic is broken. But that's motherhood, isn't it?