Can you ever have too many babies? My sweet girl and I will answer that question with a resounding "NO".
Today I was blessed to be with my mama while she met her birth brother for the first time face to face. It has been almost exactly one year since I discovered my mom's birth family. She was adopted at 7-days-old. And knew of her adoption most of her life. At some point her adoptive parents gave her the adoption papers. And with these papers came the knowledge of her birth name and her birth-parent's names. It appeared that they were married, however young. She also knew she was born in Fayetteville, NC, so we figured that her father was most likely in the service.
All of this was speculation until last December. At that time I found someone with the same name as my mom's birth father on F*ceb00k. It was a very unique name and I could not let it go. So, I began to correspond with him a little. And it became clear to me that this was my first cousin, my birth-grandfather's namesake. So, I told him that I felt like his grandparents had given my mom up for adoption many many years ago. He, of course was shocked, but the story fit on his side too. And I quickly learned that my mom has two full-blooded younger brothers. It has all been really exciting just knowing more of mama's heritage. No, we do not have many more answers than we did before, as my grandparents took their secret of a first-born daughter to the grave. But we do have connections. Heritage. Bloodlines. Genetic paths. Similarities that are almost eerie! All the way to my mom and her birth-mom naming one son the same first name and a white dog the same name. All of those things that are hard to understand or even explain unless you know adoption in a personal way. Sure, understanding those things comes natural within your own families, but when you don't have knowledge, they simply don't exist. But, now for my mama they do.
I would like to say that my sweet mama didn't NEED this information. Because as a teenage girl Jesus took her into his family and completed her. And she became a daughter of the KING. Who NEEDS earthy genetic knowledge when you are an heir to the banquet table in heaven?
This weekend was another abundantly full one. On Saturday my husband took my middle man to a birthday party across town and then he and my oldest went to watch NC State football. He called me after the game and said: "I want you to know that everything is ok NOW." My heart sank. He continued to tell me that he and our almost 8-year-old got separated in the crowd of people when leaving the game. He seriously could not find our child. So, after a little help from the cops and a LOT of help from our heavenly Father, our child was found and retrieved to his daddy. When they finally got back to our car my husband asked our big boy if he thought he could possibly find our car on his own. He responded: "Maybe after about three days."
Next on the list of action in our weekend: Poor old Kobie got his head closed in the baby gate at the top of our stairs. Yes, he had some help from a pretty little two-year-old. That old dog screamed like his leg had been severed from his body. Thankfully he was fine. Again. (go ahead and start praying for me now for that day when he is not fine)
Finally as we settled into bed Saturday night our smoke alarm went off. You know that kind of alarm! The one that you don't hear all day, but when everyone is in the bed it sounds. There is a reason those things are called ALARMS. They are ALARMING. After the second bout of it, we started our investigation. Adam took the thing down from the ceiling and our whole security system began to scream. We got it shut off without one child awake. However, I realized this was the fire alarm connected to the security system!! I tried to call and cancel our pending fire truck. But, it was too late. So, at 12:15am we had a friendly visit from the local fire department. They did come in and try to help us, but after about 15 minutes they moved on. We did finally get to bed and asleep, only for me to be awakened by a wrong number on the cell phone at 3:30am! Guess you can guess who was late to church Sunday morning.
This morning our sweet little princess decided to get up at 5:20am. I tried to convince her the weekend was over, but she didn't buy it. Is it naptime yet?
The month of November seems to bring out gratitude in a lot of people. I think that is good. It is important to me to get on my knees and be thankful for God's blessings. My mom used to tell me to count my blessings in order to fall asleep when I was little. I did not understand the magnitude of that simple idea. There is a lot of peace at the foot of the cross. Especially when you go there with an attitude of gratitude.
My sweet friend Jennifer (http:homewardboundbridges@blogspot.com) (sorry mr. linky isn't so linky today) is posting a thanks for every day of November. I won't pretend that I can do that. Obviously it is the end of the first week and here I am on my first post. Maybe Fridays this month will be my day of thanks.
