Posts made in March 18th, 2009

Whirlwind

Posted by Michelle on Mar 18, 2009 in Life, Parenting | 0 comments

It has been a flurry of activity here these past few days. My in-laws, who initially told me they would be visiting on March 16 (Monday) for The Little Empress birthday, called us on Saturday evening. I missed the call and ended up having to check my voice mail which cheerfully informed me that they would be arriving the next morning at 8:00AM. Which, as luck would have it, was the day I’d been planning to do the Massive Obligatory Clean Up for the In Laws ™. ARGH! Luckily, I have some SUPER AWESOME FRIENDS who just happened to be visiting that evening and helped me do a bit of clean up. It was no where near what I’d planned to do but hey, it worked.

My in laws arrived promptly at 7:30AM (ack) with extended family in tow — two pairs of aunts and uncles as well as two cousins. Ack x 2. Did I mention that The Hubster ™ was sick? Ack x 3. And was scheduled to go in to work that day? Ack x 4. It was a whirlwind of activity, truly. We didn’t get to visit quite as much because they all left early (read: 5:00AM!!) the next morning but at least TLE got to spend some time with her extended family.

Unfortunately, whatever The Hubster ™ got sick with, he’s passed on to both myself and The Little Empress. It is a hell of a flu that left him moaning in sick agony while bedridden for a few days. I got a mild form of whatever it is which means I’m capable of walking around but exhausted whereas TLE is suffering from the bad case of the sniffles and a fever that made both The Hubster ™ and I nervous. She’s fine though and it looks like the fever may have broken already so that’s an improvement.

Sadly, even though I’m pretty sure we’ll all be close to if not already on the mend by Saturday, we cancelled her birthday party. After three bouts of colds/flu over the last month and a half, I think it is safe to say that TLE’s immune system is pretty shot and I don’t want to take the chance of her getting sick again and/or getting any one else’s kiddo sick. Sucks because this is her very first birthday party but best to make sure she stays healthy rather than party.

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And on a completely different note….

About a month and a half ago, I got to spend some time with a few mamas from the Bay Area Babywearers during an informal playdate. Another TBW mama was currently in South Korea, picking up her child and Anjali was full of sympathy.  She and her husband were preparing to fly to South Korea to meet their son, a process she was both excited about and dreading. She knew what to expect since they had already been through the process, having adopted their daughter from South Korea a year or two earlier.

“If you look at the pictures, you’ll understand,” I remember her saying, describing how the adoptive parents are smiling but usually, the child is either not smiling or just plain screaming, scared out of their wits. Adoption day is a day of mixed emotions. “It’s the happiest day of your life but it is the most terrifying one of theirs,” I remember Anjali telling us. For the parents, adoption day is joyful and means the end for a long time of waiting and yearning to become a parent. For the child, adoption day can be terrifying since they are uprooted from the life and everyone that they have known, to live with strangers.

My friends Donna and Jim are quite possibly two of the most friendliest folks I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Their hearts are huge and made of pure gold. Their journey to parenthood has been a long, tough one and after so. much. waiting. they are finally on their way home from picking up their son from Taiwan. And my heart broke for all of them after reading Donna’s first post after they picked up their son. They’re in the adjustment phase and it is hard. hard. hard. Real difficult but I know that they will make it through. Anyone reading this, spare a good thought for this little family, will ya? I know they’ll make it through and be an awesome family but I’m sure some positive energy their way can’t hurt