Remember, the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and their stability.

 

Little One, we weathered the storm. This Monday hurricane Sandy hit, locking your Dad and me in the house until this morning. Monday night was one of the hardest we've been through together. The eye of the storm passed right over our house. We slept in shifts on the couch, one of us asleep lulled by the sound of our hand cranked operated weather radio, the other holding a flashlight, vigilant to any noise of creak that could signal a tree about to crash onto our home. We huddled on the couch as a family, your Dad and I and all the pets. We protected each other.

In the quiet hours before the storm hit, but after the electricity had gone out your Dad and I made the best of it- we played pictionary, did crossword puzzles as a team and made hand shadows on the wall. We attached glow in the dark neon wristbands to doorways and the staircase to be able to navigate our own house. It's such a weird thing when there is no light- you're in a place so very familiar and yet it all looks so different, so alien. It's like meeting someone you forgot you met the first time- so familiar, yet so distant.

When the light of morning hit, we braced ourselves to open our front door and assess the damage. Walking hand in hand out the door, we were at the ready to call insurance agents and discuss deductables. Miraculously, nothing was damaged. There were branches, leaves, even garbage cans littering our front yard- but no damage.

We weathered the storm.

The most eerie part of it all was when our home was directly in the eye of the storm. It was one of my shifts to be awake, and as I stood looking out into our front yard, the hum of the generators making the air feel electric, everything suddenly fell quiet. No gusts of wind that howled like freight trains as there had been all night, no rain drops pelting the sidewalk with force- nothing. Just calm. Eerie, scary calm. It's that calm that comes right before an accident. It's that calm you remember last before you've forgotten everything else. It's the calm where all you can hear is yourself.

And I realized while looking out that window pane, that it's the calm we're in right now.

We're in the eye of the adoption storm.

The homestudy was hustle and bustle, the fall through and the scam were a mixture of hurt and picking ourselves back up and dusting ourselves off. We've stood strong in the wind and rain, and lately it's been calm. Quiet. Waiting.

But I know that soon, the winds will pick up again. The rain will soak through to our bones, we'll have to stand strong like we always have. But after that, it's over. The storm is gone, and the sun shines again.

We can't wait for your sunrise, LO.

Today is Halloween. It doesn't even feel like halloween, because your Dad is working late to make up lost time from the storm and we have barely any trick or treaters. And yet, I'm still lonely from it. I miss the children dressed head to toe in costumes, holding out bags asking for those sugar packed candies with bright eyes. I remember the days of my youth, going out with my parents in gorgeous homemade costumes my mother had spent months stitching together. Then, as a teenager- opting for the pop culture references that adorned the party store walls. I'm ready to be on the other side. I'm ready to cross over, to be the holder of the little hand across the street, the pusher of the stroller, the impromptu coat rack when costumes get too tiresome to wear at the end of the night.

I hope that next year, we'll have our little sunshine to dress up. I hope next year, I can cross over.

I hope that we're out of the eye soon, because we're well rested now.

We're ready for the wind now.

Waiting for you sunshine, 

Love always,

Mom

Though the wait is long, my dream of you does not end.

Little One, this blank page is haunting me. I've been trying to write to you for weeks, and the words just aren't coming. I'm not really sure why, but I think I have an idea.

 

It might sound insane, but a fraction of me feels like with every passing week that goes by that you're not here, I'm failing you. I'm doing something wrong. I'm not doing enough, I'm doing too much, I'm looking but not finding. Every day that goes without you here, I feel like I'm not living up to my full mother potential.

 

I know that sounds insane. I know, logically, that I cannot control a lot of the aspects of this journey. But for some reason, I can't help feeling like a failure when people ask if we've adopted yet, and I tell them no. Or when I open up the door to your nursery, and I can almost physically feel the emptiness of the room hanging in the air. Or when anniversaries pass-- which seem to be happening more and more often. We thought we'd have you in June, but no. Then we thought you'd come into our lives in October, and we would get to buy your first Halloween outfit. But no. Then we thought, okay- by Thanksgiving- this match should come through.

But no.

 

Week after week after week.

Holiday after holiday.

Ridiculous date after ridiculous date.

 

And the craziest part about all of this is that we're making up these insane deadlines in our head. Yes, we've talked to potential matches in every one of those scenarios that haven't worked out for one reason or another (fall throughs, scams, lost contacts). But it's not the other person that is putting these ideas of a timeline in our head- it's us. We're the ones who are putting this pressure on ourselves.

And it has to stop.

 

You're going to come into our lives when you do. If a situation doesn't work out, then it just wasn't the one that was meant to be. Then it wasn't you. It's so hard to remember that, but we have to in order to keep a level head. When I think of these dissapointments, I try to remember the red thread.

I've talked about the red thread in here before: but basically it is the idea that an invisible red thread connects us all in the adoption tried- us, you, and your biological family. We're all connected by this invisible thread, and it will come together when it's meant to be, because that thread is unbreakable.

And yes, I obviously wish I had a blacklight that would light up this invisible thread and we could follow it to you. But it doesn't work like that. I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason, and though the wait is hard I'm not giving up that idea. When we have hurt, setbacks, pain and heartache- they are all for a greater good. We might not be able to see that good in the present, but in the future we can look back and realize how much we learned and grew in this time.

 

Just the other day I heard a song on the radio that took me back to my college days. More specifically, this was a song I listened to on repeat after a particularly bad breakup. And it made me think (the way music often does), that if time wasn't so linear I wish I could jump back to that time, to face that young college kid and explain to her that her tears are for nothing- because in just a few short months, she would meet the man she's going to marry- her true soulmate. That very quickly in the scheme of things, she'd be married and own a house with this wonderful man. That her life is going to be more amazing than she could ever imagine. That she is crying tears over something she doesn't even understand yet- because when she meets this man she'll finally understand what head over heels, earth shattering, life changing love feels like. That she'll be happy, very soon- for a long time.

And it made me wonder- in years down the road, will I want to travel back to this time to tell the present me that I'm worrying for nothing? To not waste the tears? That this is going to happen, soon, and that this whole waiting process will feel like a blink of an eye?

 

I sure hope so, LO. And that is one reason why I want to push myself to continue writing to you, no matter how hard it might be for me. I want you to be able to read these words and have your history with us, even before it begins.

 

Because though you're not here yet, you are here in so many ways.

 

And this way, you'll be able to look back and read and understand just how much we loved you before you ever came to be in our lives.

 

Though the wait is long, my dream of you does not end.

 

And it never will.

 

 

With love and hope,

Love,

Mom