The Little Man is 7

When this little guy entered our lives, our world was already upside down. The 1st One had arrived just two short months ahead of him. We were deep in the sweet, delirious depths of newborn sleep deprivation. We were expecting him just the same. When we first decided we were going to adopt, we did some research and found the agency we knew we could work with. Now, if you have ever adopted you know how violated you feel by the time you've finished filling out paper work and all the inquiries into every part of your life. Without a doubt, the ends justify the means. We had a few failed adoptions before we ended up with the 1st One. Truth is though, I knew we were suppose to have two little ones really close together. In fact, I had a recurring dream of two little curly haired kids playing on the floor in the nursery. When I called the agency and told them that we were expecting two for some crazy reason, they went with the flow and continued to present our names to birth mothers. The 1st One's birth mother and My Son's birth mother were roommates at the time. When I met the one, I met the other as well, not knowing how life was going to play out.

After the 1st One was born we heard that My Son's birth mother had picked us. We really loved her already at this point. She had been there with me and the 1st One's birth mother when the 1st One was born. My Son's birth mother came and spent a weekend with us shortly after that. It was a really neat experience getting to know her like that, before My Son was born. He was due towards the end of September according to his birth mom. Needless to say, we were shocked when we got the call in the middle of August to please come to the hospital, My Son's birth mom was in labor.

He entered this world such a lost little man. Well, lost in some ways, in others not so much. Even with his birth weight at 6 lbs. the doctors determined him to be earlier than 4 to 6 weeks. They were thinking closer to 8 weeks early. The little stinker would not eat for for the NICU nurses, he would barely eat for me, but if the Rocket Scientist showed up to feed him, the little guy chowed. He bonded immediately with the Rocket Scientist.

After he was born, I remember the director of the adoption agency asking us if we wanted to back out of the adoption. (I never would have dreamed of it, but I guess it is common to have adoptive parents back out of adoptions when the child they are waiting for is born with some challenges.) She began talking to us about other birth parents she could present our file to. The Rocket Scientist and I were a little shocked. If we were ever actually able to have biological children, there are no guarantees that our biological children would be born free of disabilities and/or challenges. "We love this kid and he's ours," I remember thinking. Assuring the director that this was our kid and we were in it for the long haul we pressed forward. My Son was born with a condition called Peter's Anomaly. This condition required a cornea transplant as soon as they could find a match if we wanted to try for vision in that eye. We felt we had to, since he could decide later in life not to continue to fight for sight in that eye, but if he didn't have a clear cornea in 2 weeks, the chances of his brain wiring that eye for sight diminished greatly. At 12 days old and just a little over 5 lbs. My Son had a cornea transplant.

The first year was rough! My Son had bonded quite nicely with the Rocket Scientist; He was still quite uncertain about me though. In fact, I could barely get him to eat for me. I would get maybe 2-3 ounces of formula in him during the day. The minute his dad hit the door the kid was with his dad chowing. He would eat and eat and eat for the RS. This system was tolerable until the RS had to go back to business as usual at work. The Rocket Scientist is in aerospace and his work requires him to travel a lot. The RS would be gone for a week at a time, leaving me with my precious newborns, trying to figure out how I was going to get My Son to bond with me. Though the 1st Child came into this world head strong and opinionated she was a pretty easy going baby and would be patient with me. My Son, he would just scream till he got his dad.

Eventually he bonded with me. If you ask him now if "he's Momma's boy or Daddy's boy", he will tell you he is Momma's boy.

Happy Birthday My Sweet Son! I love you so much!

I believe we have found the guy responsible for fingers in the frosting. He struck on this birthday cake as well. He was "cold busted" with his fingers in the refridgerator and the tell-tale frosting adhering to them like warts on a frog.