The Details

This posting is mostly for posterity's sake. I can't imagine that I will ever forget the first time I saw my son's face but I want to record every second to make sure that it never fades away. I want to make sure I write it all down so Button can read it later. I also want to share it with friends who are still waiting. For two years, I've been reading about people's referrals and being so swept away in the story but then I would just want to call them up and beg them to tell me how it FELT! I know there are lots of other PAP's who feel this way too. Jess, these details are especially for you! ;-)

I very much had an expectation that we would receive a picture of a cute little baby and I would look at it and think "Oh my goodness, isn't he sweet?" just the same way I do when I see pictures of my friend's kids. I thought that loving him would be part of a relationship that would slowly evolve through attachment and bonding. Of course, I was 100% committed to loving him, which really is the biggest part of love, but I had absolutely no expectations of feeling anything magically maternal.

Instead, the moment Brian and I opened that email from Holt and saw his first tiny picture I felt as if everything that I had always been was being melted away and a mommy monster was growing in its place. There was a moment of total silence, as if I were in a soundproof chamber, and then I remembered Brian was sitting next to me and I looked over and saw he was crying and then I realized I was too. When I first saw Button's picture my immediate reaction was "Oh, of course, it's you." He seemed so familiar to my soul. Like a soldier home from war and maybe they've changed over the years and maybe you have too but you would know them anywhere because you've loved them for so very long.

We had two sets of pictures: one from his 3 month check up and one from his 6 month check up. After we spent ages gloating over his gorgeous 3 month pictures we opened the next email and looked at Button, age 6 months. We both cried some more. It was impossible to see with our own eyes that our baby had grown so much. He was already so big and obviously could multiply and knew the periodic table of elements by now and didn't even need parents any more because he would be leaving for college any day. After we managed to calm down though we realized that he was even more beautiful at 6 months than he was at 3 months and that we were the luckiest people on earth.

We took his paperwork to a pediatrician for review, because we had been urged to do so, but we knew from the moment we saw his face that he was our son. We didn't need anyone to tell us what the adoption would or would not mean for us before we would move forward with it. We knew that adopting Button would mean that we were bringing our son home to live with us. Plain and simple.

People say a lot of things about adoption. Some of them are wise. Some of them are foolish. This much I know is true: I have been lost to love from the second I saw my son's face and no other experience could possibly have been more powerful.

--Rosemary