We're Expecting!

We’re expecting a baby! It’s sometimes hard to keep that in mind. I don’t have an expanding belly and I don’t have morning sickness. No little creature is kicking me in the ribs and my belly button is firmly established as an “inny” with no real plan to protrude out in the near future. As much as I enjoy not throwing up every morning and relishing the smell of meat cooking, and being free from stretched ligaments, swollen ankles and getting pummeled from the inside out, we miss the excitement and anticipation and even the attention that comes with all that’s involved in pregnancy.

Instead of doctor’s appointments, we have meetings with our lawyer about immigration and citizenship, instead of prenatal class, we have PRIDE training, instead of aching feet at the end of a long pregnant day, we have aching brains from reading and researching. Ours is a different sort of pregnancy.

But it is exciting! We are preparing for a new little life in our family and these preparations make the arrival of our little guy seem possible and even probable!

Yesterday was an exciting day of preparations. We’ve been working on renovating Sara’s room, ripping out carpet, prepping, priming, and painting the walls, and finally, the big job of yesterday, installing the flooring and trim. Marc’s dad came down yesterday morning to help Marc install the floor. Amazing what a floor and trim do to finish a room.

With much joy and excitement on the part of Leah and Sara, Marc and “Grandpa” set up the bunk beds. The girls were actually excited to go to bed. New bunk beds in their new shared room!

Leah slept the entire night in her big girl bed, with no soother even! She feels very proud!

Now that Leah is mostly moved out of the baby room, our thoughts move to preparing it for our new baby. I’ve chosen stencils and stamps to decorate the walls, and am thinking of what to hang in the place of the baby quilt I made for Leah. We’re creating space in our house, and in turn in our lives, for our newest child, and this, in some way, is like its own kind of pregnancy.

Marc’s parents gave us a gift, not just a gift of time and tools and skills in the renovations, they actually brought a “gift” gift, a present, wrapped and everything. It was a cute little orange shirt decorated with crocodiles and little shorts – unmistakably, absolutely and 100%ly boys clothes. What joy! To open a present for our son, to imagine him chasing his big sisters in the back yard, crocodile patched orange shirt flying past us as he giggles and scrambles into the sandbox, and then turns to us with a big wide grin!

Nothing makes the adoption process seem more real than receiving a gift for the baby.

We’re expecting, and it’s really kind of cool. Although the wait is long, and the paperwork is endless, although we keep thinking we’re almost done, only to find out there’s a whole other process we hadn’t realized, we anticipate its completion. We look forward to that 20ish hour plane trip (our own sort of labour) which will end when Marc and I finally see the beautiful face of our child, our son. We’re expecting a baby, and I can’t wait!

"I know all about adoption; I was adopted" a little girl said. "What does adoption mean?" asked another child. "It means", said the girl, "that you grew in your Mommy's heart instead of her tummy."