…on the night before her adoption…
My favorite CooCoo,
Before you came to join our family, mommy and I wanted to be moms really badly, but Mommy was having a really hard time getting her body to grow one, and Mama wasn’t sure her body would be ready for it either. We decided that maybe being foster parents would be pretty awesome, and we would get to spend some time with some really fun (and cute!) tiny people and do our best to give them a good life and a place where they could feel safe. We didn’t EVER think that we would be so lucky to have God help us find each other. Mary, since you joined our family everything has changed! Actually, we weren’t even a family until you showed up! It was just “Sammie and Callie”.
I remember everything about that day. Mommy and I were sitting on the couch, all day, drinking hot chocolate, waiting for Ms, A. to call us and let us know that you were on your way. When she finally called, mommy and I started to get nervous. We didn’t know what to expect! We walked back and forth to your room several times to straighten the toys on the shelf, open and close the curtains, fluff the pillows and pull the comforter taut, adjusting the lampshade on your night table to make sure it lit up all the books that were our favorites growing up that we hoped you would love as much as we did.
The next 3 hours passed very quickly, but also REALLY slowly! We watched TV, I chewed on my nails, mommy fixed her hair A LOT, and we sat thinking about what it would be like to have a daughter, even if it was just for a little while! As we imagined our lives with a beautiful little girl in it, we were startled out of our seats when the door buzzer sounded. I went downstairs to be greeted by a woman that told me that you were asleep in the car and that it had been a pretty exciting and scary day for you because you were taken away from your birth mom (super scary and really sad) but you got to go on your first plane ride EVER (which she says was super exciting for you).
I walked over to a small white car and noticed a little pink ball of fluff in the back seat and a white cardboard box sitting next to it. Suddenly, the fluff moved, and that’s when I realized, that fluff was YOU! I opened the door to these big, gorgeous green eyes, and I picked you up in my arms and carried you back to our apartment. You had just turned 6 years old, but in my arms you felt much smaller that. You put your head on my shoulder, and my heart knew I would always be your Mama.
It was just after midnight but we gave you a yummy snack, we watched some TV, and we showed you your new room. You weren’t happy about any of the changes at first (we know how hard it was on you), but after a few weeks, it was like we had always been together. Like we had always been a family. Since then, a lot of things have changed (some good, some bad, some happy, some sad), but through all of those things, we have been a family and we have always gotten through those times with love.
In the 3 years since we’ve been a together we have seen you grow so much. We have seen you not really know your entire alphabet and the sounds the letters make, to reading Harry Potter with me at night. I’ve seen you go from coloring outside the lines to making fantastically colorful creations that our friends and family are so proud to display on their fridges. You are the best big sister EVER, and whenever people take care of the 4 of you they always say, “We don’t know WHAT we would have done without Mary! She is so helpful and really loves her brothers!” That makes me and mommy feel really proud of you! You have gone from a quiet, reserved, shy kindergartener, to a fierce, strong, soccer loving, friend making machine, with a smile that lights up the whole room! CooCoo, you are the best kid that could have ever come to our family! We are so, so lucky!!!
We know that you have a lot of feelings about finally being adopted. You’ve told us about your excitement and your fears and concerns, and I promise you that Mommy and I will always listen to you and we will always try our best to give you honest, open, and loving answers to your questions. Sometimes, you may not like the things that we have to say, and sometimes those things will make you feel pretty sad, but it’s important to remember that we would never do anything to hurt you, and we want to always tell the truth, because remember what we always say at Casa Mendez, “This family doesn’t lie to each other because if we lie we won’t trust and if we don’t have trust, we don’t have anything.”
We love watching you grow. We love watching you laugh. We love watching you play. We love watching you learn. We love watching your relationship with your brothers. We love YOU. You, You, YOU!
You’ll always be my best girl,
Mama
(PS – be prepared for the BARRAGE of pictures that will flood my next post!!!)
thechroniclesofanonbellymama 