The Laird Lowdown: Birthday Parties...

Monday, October 8, 2007

Birthday Parties...

Well, you only turn One years-old once... don't you?

Kaylee turned one, three times this year. We had one party with her Birthmother and brother; one party with Nana Lucy, the day before her actual birthday; and we had a party on Sunday, with all of Kaylee's family. Almost everyone came to see Kaylee. There was Aunt Beth and Ethan, Grandma and Grandpa Laird, Nana Lucy, Granddad and Miss Gina, and "Great-grandma and grandpa" Feeley and family. We had a whole house full of people. It was great fun. We were missing seven people from our happy little family though. Uncle Pat couldn't make it, because he had to work back in New York and Aunt Pam, Uncle Kevin, Katie and Caleb were back in Illinois with colds and such. We also were missing Great Grandmom and Granddad O'Brien who were in Maryland. We missed them all and we didn't save any cake!

Anyway, we are now over run by an army of dolls of every shape and size, a small library of books, a closet full of clothes (always good!), and some odds and ends like a doll stroller, a cup with Kaylee's name on it, and a birthday train... oh almost forgot the hopping frog and flying screamer monkey. Either way Kaylee made a great haul on her first birthday. Now it's on to thinking about Christmas (by the way Tim don't read this part... it will scare you!)

I am also starting to think about Halloween. Kaylee is probably old enough to go Trick or Treating and she also goes to daycare, so we need a costume. I have several options, so I put a poll at the top of this page, so you could vote on what she should be. It was thought earlier in the year that she would make a great Pebbles Flintstone, but as this means I would have to find the time to make her costume, I don't know if that'll happen.

Last year she was a bunny, but I don't think she's up to hopping anywhere this year, so we'll have to choose something different. Remember if you want to weigh in on the decision, vote!

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Our Adoption Story

Everyone always wants to know our adoption story. It is a long and complicated affair, but the short of it goes like this:

Tim and I decided after long discussion to build a family through adoption. Any children we adopted would be ours but just not have his eyes, or my hair… Anyway, we started our adoption journey on September 11, 2003 in an international program to Thailand.

In late February of 2005 we received word that the Thai government had turned down our request. We were devastated. We began looking into other options. We turned to domestic adoption.

A girl at Aquinas, where I work, had a friend who was looking to find an adoptive home for her baby. We decided to go ahead and find out more about her. We then got news that she was pregnant with twin boys. Oh my… what to do? So after talking and praying we decided if that was what God meant for us, then that was great.

So we talked with her and it was progressing toward us having twins. Unfortunately, the mother went into premature labor and one of the boys was still born and the other boy was very sick. The mother wanted to keep him, which was fine with us, since to voluntarily give up a child is one thing, but to have one taken from you is another.

After much sorrow, we again started over. We had our portfolio looked at by a bunch of birth parents, but nothing came of it, so we waited… and waited… and waited. Until one day I was getting out of a meeting and my telephone rang at work. It was the social worker calling about a birth family. Finally we had been chosen. That was Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

The only downside was the baby would be here any minute, literally. The birth mother had come in on her due date to make an adoption plan… oh my, again! We said that yes of course we’d take the baby, so in a mad dash, we finished paperwork, bought out Babies R Us, and made many phone calls to parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, and the list went on.

It was Tuesday when we got the call and by Sunday, September 24th, we were a wreck, so we went to church. After church we had to do a little more shopping to get ready and so we stopped for lunch at Taco Bell. A familiar face jumped out of the crowd at Tim, it was the pregnancy counselor, Emily. He saw that she was talking on her phone and said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if she was talking about our baby?” I think I answered that it would be “scary, not funny.” So he went over to say hi. Well, it turns out he was right. She was talking to the birth mother; she had just gone into labor.

At around 7pm that evening we got to meet our little miracle, our Kaylee. Two days later we got to take her home to a house that was full of people waiting to hold her and even more people waiting to come over to the house to hold her. On, June 13, 2007, Kaylee Raquel Elaina Laird became officially ours and we are so happy to finally have an “official” complete family.