An Embarassment of Riches

I am dazzled by the magnitude of my blessings. These past 4 days have been a blur, a flurry of activity focused solely on the little man asleep beside me in his orange striped dinosaur pj’s. Tonight as I emptied the tub of his toys and started preparing tomorrow’s bag of snacks and distraction ammo, I finally had a moment to reflect.

I would be blessed to be a parent to any child. But here I am on the other side of the world, blessed with this amazing gift, *this* child. I worried that he would have missed out on nurturing attention in his first 15 months. Then Monday I find he has been living with foster parents for a year and he was clearly loved. I worried that he would have lacked proper nutrition and would remain low on the growth charts. But here he is with creases on his wrists, rolls over his knees and chunky thighs. My “small” 15 month old is almost bursting out of his 12-18 month pj’s with those arms and thighs! I worried that he would reject me and shut down emotionally. But instead I walk snuggling a singing, cooing, babbling little guy who (I think) calls me something like mumumum. I have been the recipient of the brightest most amazing smile or even a belly chuckle more times than I can count. And tonight I almost cried to see him toddling down the hall towards me, both arms reaching up with his wide beaming smile of pure delight. Does it get any better?

And then add to all of that that I’m not on this journey alone. Besides being able to share such a huge life event, I have to say having my brave travel mates here has made all the difference in the world. They are game travelers, but besides that they have gone out of their way to take care of things for me since I have my hands full. All I have to worry about is this child. He hasn’t fully warmed to them yet but it’s only a matter of time. I don’t think I’d have ventured out as much if I were traveling alone – in fact I might still be stuck at the airport trying to maneuver all that luggage! J

This whole trip, this whole journey’s sequence of events has been extraordinary. When I think about how the stars and circumstances aligned to bring this boy into my life and me into his…it’s indescribable. I am lucky. I am blessed. I am so, so grateful.