Tomorrow we celebrate Jackson’s fifth Gotcha Day – the day we legally became a Forever Family. It’s a day to celebrate adoption, to remember his birth mother and to look back on the amazing story God has written for our family.
Tomorrow I should be sharing age appropriate parts of Jackson’s story with him. I should be talking about the anticipation we had driving to the hospital on that foggy, rainy Wednesday. I should be telling him how I listened to his heart beat all night long – scared and excited – about what the next day would bring. I should be sharing the sweet moment his birth mother held him and then placed him in my arms. I should be telling him about the tears of joy that fell from everyones eyes at 4:02 p.m. December 14, 2011.
We should have been talking about adoption by now.
But Apraxia has robbed us of that conversation.
Because how do you have those hard conversations when your son can’t communicate?
He can’t ask me questions.
He can’t share his feelings – is he happy, scared or sad?
We never hide the fact that he’s adopted; but the conversation has been delayed.
I never want Jackson to be ashamed of his story.
I never want Jackson to feel as if I’ve misled him in any way.
It’s harder the older he gets; the more aware he becomes of the celebration we have on April 30th.
A friend and fellow adoptive mama gave me a great piece of advice the other night.
She told me to keep it simple and matter-of-fact.
That’s how she’s chosen to address adoption with her daughter who has Down Syndrome and Apraxia.
And that’s what I’m choosing to do this year.
I’ll start small and begin to share his story.
Tomorrow we’ll read books about adoption.
Tomorrow we’ll look at photos from the day he was born.
The God who wrote our story, will guide me as I share it with my son.
Because it’s a story worth celebrating every day!
***You can read our entire adoption story in my memoir Bringing Home the Missing Linck: A Journey of Faith to Family.***