The Laird Lowdown: A HUG too!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

A HUG too!

I've been sick for a week now and so I got up late yesterday morning. That being the case and with Kaylee going to visit Nana for a few days I wanted to be able to kiss her goodbye before I left for work, so I went in to her room to see her. Unfortunately she wanted up! Tim was not done getting ready for work yet and I figured I was already going in late... and I did tell Susan (my boss) 7:30, so I would be able to make that easily if I got Kaylee up for Tim...

So, I got Kaylee up and dressed, did her hair, and got her breakfast. Later I told Tim if I had to do it every morning I'd have to quit my job because there is no way I would be able to leave that face every morning! Anyway, so we got ready for work and "school" and Tim came downstairs and we were all milling around doing our own thing.

I got all of my stuff together and then went to get my coat. Kaylee saw this and said expectantly, "Coat!" We explained that she had to wait for daddy and that mama had to go to work alone. She and daddy would go to school later. She seemed okay with this after the explanation. So I got my coat on and went over to her, bent down, gave her a hug and kiss, and then picked up my stuff to head out the door.

I made it half way across the kitchen when I was pulled to a screeching halt by two very small strong hands grabbing onto my coat, at either hip. Kaylee had pulled me to a stop. Kaylee then yelled something. I didn't quite understand, so I asked her to repeat what she had said.

She said, "Daddy, kiss!" As she said all of this, her little hands and body was turning mine back toward where Tim was standing in the kitchen. She was now pushing me. I now understood. She wanted me to give Tim a kiss goodbye. I asked her, "I need to give Daddy a kiss?" She said, "Yes." So I gave Tim a kiss goodbye and started to turn away. I thought it was the end of that.

All of a sudden I hear, "HUG!" It was said in a very exasperated and very loud voice. She was telling me like I was a child that didn't understand how this worked. "Geese Mom, don't you know by now you give a kiss AND a hug!" I could just see this in her mind working.

I began to laugh. Tim had a smile on his face. I said to her, "I have to hug Daddy, too?" She gave me a very exasperated "yes." So I hugged Tim and without prompting this time, Tim said "I love you" to me and I was finally ready to go. I bent back down kissed her again, told her that I loved her, and headed out the door.

As my car pulled out of the driveway, I saw a two heads in the front window and a small arm waving. It reminded me that morning what I was going to work for, that I am loved, and that I have the sweetest family in the world. Yeah, it would definitely be hard leaving that little face every morning. I don't know how Tim does it, but I'm glad he does.

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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.