6 Strings Attached. With Six of us around there's always something to write about but not enough time to.
2.09.2010
2.08.2010
Getting Ajay
This is a video we made of us going to get Ajay. It only tells part of the story. This is for those of you that haven't seen it already. Hope you enjoy it.
2.01.2010
The Nitty Gritty
All about it -for those of you who have asked about the nitty gritty details.
I know folks worry about adopting for various reasons. I know worrying about whether you could love a kid that wasn’t “your own” is one. I know that worrying about thinking afterwards that you had made a huge mistake is one. I was not worried about either of those (not until after the fact anyway). BUT I was worried about recognizing him when we went in the orphanage! We had been sent almost a dozen pictures from June when we accepted his referral to November when we were getting ready to go get him. I was afraid it would be like a test. Like we would walk in and all the workers would be looking to see if I could pick him out of the crowd. And if I didn’t they would deem us not a good match and me a horrible mother. I was also worried that I would reach out to hold him and he would scream in terror and lean back towards his caregiver.
Neither happened! I did recognize him right away and he is so chilled he’d probably let anybody hold him – even me.
I was aware that the handoff would be difficult for Ajay’s caretaker and that I would need to give her time to say goodbye. It was in fact difficult for her and I did move slowly. And I didn’t mind. At that point I knew we were about to have a lifetime ahead of us and that I was thankful for the care she had given him during his first 11 months.
Something I was not expecting – Spencer had the video camera rolling when I finally got to pick Ajay up. He had been asleep and was super droggy. His eyes were puffy and his head was wobbly. I realized that Ajay was not holding his head up good at all, especially for an 11 month old. I said on the camera, oh gosh, what is wrong with him?!? He can’t even hold his head up! That will be good footage for him to look at when he gets older! My thought was that we should ask about this before walking out the door of the orphanage. But Spencer had the dang camera rolling so I had no choice but to ask right then. Oops! So much going on. No problem. Spencer dubbed music over that part of the video.
After we left the orphanage and during our whole time in India things went pretty well. We had a few eating, sleeping, and pooping “issues” but that was to be expected. Oh but that is all babies do, eh? Eat, sleep and poop. So I guess we had issues in ALL areas. But we didn’t really realize it at the time. We were out and about a lot and he got carried in the Baby Bjorn a lot. Probably a good thing to have him so close and snug to us so much of the time. It was hard to tell exactly how life would really be once we got home and got into the real swing of things with a real schedule. Oh and other kids to deal with, meals to cook, school to teach and a house to clean. We had been giving him one on one attention 24 hours a day.
I know folks worry about adopting for various reasons. I know worrying about whether you could love a kid that wasn’t “your own” is one. I know that worrying about thinking afterwards that you had made a huge mistake is one. I was not worried about either of those (not until after the fact anyway). BUT I was worried about recognizing him when we went in the orphanage! We had been sent almost a dozen pictures from June when we accepted his referral to November when we were getting ready to go get him. I was afraid it would be like a test. Like we would walk in and all the workers would be looking to see if I could pick him out of the crowd. And if I didn’t they would deem us not a good match and me a horrible mother. I was also worried that I would reach out to hold him and he would scream in terror and lean back towards his caregiver.
Neither happened! I did recognize him right away and he is so chilled he’d probably let anybody hold him – even me.
I was aware that the handoff would be difficult for Ajay’s caretaker and that I would need to give her time to say goodbye. It was in fact difficult for her and I did move slowly. And I didn’t mind. At that point I knew we were about to have a lifetime ahead of us and that I was thankful for the care she had given him during his first 11 months.
Something I was not expecting – Spencer had the video camera rolling when I finally got to pick Ajay up. He had been asleep and was super droggy. His eyes were puffy and his head was wobbly. I realized that Ajay was not holding his head up good at all, especially for an 11 month old. I said on the camera, oh gosh, what is wrong with him?!? He can’t even hold his head up! That will be good footage for him to look at when he gets older! My thought was that we should ask about this before walking out the door of the orphanage. But Spencer had the dang camera rolling so I had no choice but to ask right then. Oops! So much going on. No problem. Spencer dubbed music over that part of the video.
After we left the orphanage and during our whole time in India things went pretty well. We had a few eating, sleeping, and pooping “issues” but that was to be expected. Oh but that is all babies do, eh? Eat, sleep and poop. So I guess we had issues in ALL areas. But we didn’t really realize it at the time. We were out and about a lot and he got carried in the Baby Bjorn a lot. Probably a good thing to have him so close and snug to us so much of the time. It was hard to tell exactly how life would really be once we got home and got into the real swing of things with a real schedule. Oh and other kids to deal with, meals to cook, school to teach and a house to clean. We had been giving him one on one attention 24 hours a day.
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