Our Adoption Story in a Nutshell

A Facebook page I like, the Archibald Project, posted a question: "At what point in your life did you decide to adopt? What were the reasons?! We want to hear from YOU!"  

Well, surprise, surprise, my answer was a bit long for a comment on a Facebook page (though I posted it anyway), so I thought I would post it here since it's our adoption story in a nutshell.  I'm still working on the longer version, but that may take a while.

As a child, I loved babies and younger children and knew lots of adopted kids, so it was pretty normal.  I also used to love the book, The Family Nobody Wanted, about a family who kept themselves opened to helping kids and ended up with a dozen or more.  So I think I was always opened to the idea.  My husband isn't really a kid person, but he's a theological one and knows that God loves adoption so we had talked about it as something we wanted to do.  However, we are from two different countries and living in a third so we didn't think it would be something for this period in our lives.  A pastor we know with four kids wasn't pursuing adoption, but his family said "yes" when asked and I always said it would be nice if that happened to us -- someone just said, "Here's a baby that needs a home.  How about you?" without all the paperwork and agencies, etc.  Low and behold, my husband preached a sermon on Ephesians 1 in our tiny English speaking church (in Taiwan).  In it, he mentioned our desire to adopt "one day," and a Taiwanese friend who visits from time to time came up to him after the service and said, "I know a baby."  He then came up to me with the same news -- and called the grandma and told her about us and called us back and said she wanted to meet us if we were interested.  And ... less than a month after that sermon, our "first born" came into our family at 4 months old (though two years later we are only finished one out of three countries' worth of paperwork).  So, maybe it was decided back a long time ago or maybe it was decided a week before we became parents and actually went through with it.  I'm not sure.  I do know we'd love to adopt again some day, though with a two-year-old, a one-year-old, and another on his way and an international move within the next year, maybe we'll wait it out a bit.

Baby ramblings, Part 1

Jonathan has recently taken off in talking.  He's not stringing words together yet so there haven't been many of those cute and funny baby talk moments yet, but he knows how to make the most of what he has.

Half an hour or so after putting the kids to bed tonight (and yes, they are now sleeping in the same room), I heard a plaintive little, "Mamma, mamma."  I went in to check on him.  Vivienne was in her crib, sound asleep, but Jonathan was standing up in his crib, wide awake.  The first thing he did was lift his arms to me and say "bao-bao" (the Chinese for pick me up and hold me).  Bedtime must be boring when your sister falls asleep first.  I turned on his CD and the little light mobile on the ceiling and told him that I wasn't going to get him up because it was time to sleep.  Immediately, he says, "da-da," followed by a really hopeful "ay-pah" (iPad).  When I said no to that, he went back to "da-da."  So I asked him if he wanted me to get daddy to come in and say "hi" to him.  He smiled and nodded.  I left and sent Stephen into him.  I'm guessing Jonathan tried the same "bao-bao" with daddy, because I could hear Stephen say, "No, Jonathan.  It's sleep-sleep time."  Immediately, "Mamma."  Finally, he asked Stephen for "book."  Last night I found a cheap little English book I had from my teaching days with Dora the Explorer (the love of his life, after Pocoyo and the iPad), and he wanted to go to bed with it last night and tonight.  Apparently, it had fallen down next to the crib, so Daddy rescued it and Jonathan is now contentedly "reading" to himself with sweet little murmurs.

Vivienne, too, is making progress on the linguistic development front.  She has been rather limited by the fact that she can pretty much only produce the "b" and the "d" sounds, so everyone is "da-da", including mommy, herself, Jonathan, and, of course, actual daddy.  It's usually pretty obvious from context who she is actually referring to, though.  Conversations with Vivienne go something like this.  Mommy will disappear into the bedroom, bathroom, or kitchen, and a voice will start up from behind the door, obviously calling to me.  "Da-da." 

I reply, "No, Mamma." 

"Da-da." 

"No, Mamma."  This usually goes on for several cycles before she gives up and goes back to Jonathan or daddy.

But tonight, it seems that Vivienne has doubled her phonemes.  In addition to, "da" and "ba," there were definite "ma"'s and "nah"'s.  I think at least once, she was actually saying "mamma" to me and not just randomly muttering.  Of course, she followed this immediately by pointing to Uncle Mike, who was over for a late-night visit, and saying "Mamma" quite clearly and distinctly.  Oh well.  It's progress.  She's definitely going to be a little talker like her brother (and her mother!) before we know it.

Now that they are both toddlers, daddy has his hands full!