I hope I don’t need to worry about offending any singles by doing a Valentine’s post here, because WAFers are most definitely with someone. In fact, our lack of aloneness can feel rather unrelenting at times – consider little fists hammering on the loo door. But being together was what we wanted and worked very hard to get.
Adopters seem to me to be a particularly squeezed segment of the squeezed generation. Often older parents, they soon care not only for their new child(ren) but also their ailing and aging parents. I’ve been observing this from a safe distance. Marvelling at the resilience and strength of these adopters.
We were told that our adoptive lives would be a rollercoaster ride, weren’t we? My day started on a dizzy high, and now I’m sitting here feeling like I’ve been turned inside out.
I had the pleasure of sharing my birthday with you this month, but it was tinged with equal joy and sadness.
Since we first read about our daughter, we’ve known that there were half siblings out there somewhere, in other adoptive families. This knowledge, which we had but she did not, has felt very heavy.
Most of us get obsessed about going back to work, dusting off the Lycra for a jog or giving up our vices at this time of year. But, for we adopters, it’s also worth taking a moment to reflect on the amazing things we’ve done, and choose resolutions that will make us happier, not just fitter or richer, in 2019.
As I hope most parents do we tell our sons that we love them every single day – often multiple times a day – and by now (almost 6 years as a family) we are pretty sure that they understand it and believe it.
My mother lived to just 62, far too young of course and her death seemed illogical and unjust at the time. However, just how young she was is only now starting to sink in – more than 16 years later.
I’m 55 this year, just 7 years younger than she was when she died.
7 years! It will fly by…
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