Week of Signs

Some weeks come and go with very little thought about our journey to adopt. Really, they do. They're an accumulation of days just living in the moment, noticing the change in seasons, engaging in fun conversations with friends out on the town, or just making a meal and enjoying music together on the back patio. Sure, thoughts of how things might be different someday with a little person demanding our attention do come up, but they are put aside effortlessly.

Some weeks are all-consumed by our own impatience with the situation. Every trip to the store, commute to work,  or evening tooth brushing session reminds us in some way that we are still a family of two (+ chickens). Those are excruciating to endure. Luckily by now, I have enough experience in The Wait to know that time will pass and we will again get back to effortlessly living in the now.

As much fun as the first type of passed time is for me, I have to say that my favorite periods of The Wait are those in which we're not the ones bringing up our plan, but other signs creep in to keep it in the forefront of our minds. These weeks of signs plant fleeting thoughts that this is really going to happen for us. During these times, we're living in the now, and the now includes positive reminders that we're going to be placed with a baby someday.

When visiting with our friends last weekend, we learned that another couple they know were just matched with a birth mother and will be picking up their baby today! We don't know these people, but I can certainly relate to, and share in, their joy. Later that afternoon, a story on the radio highlighted a woman who was placing her baby with her sister to adopt. Yesterday, one of the other waiting moms in our group emailed me to say that she was checking in because she just felt there was some activity with birth mothers working with our agency and she had a feeling someone would be getting a call soon.

Sometimes, it just seems the subject of adoption is all around us whether we want to focus on it or not. These little tales and dreams of adoption working out attach themselves to our story so far and begin to paint a different, more hopeful and imminently promising picture.

Tonight, my Colorado mom and I have tickets to see Lori Lavender Luz speak as part of the Listen to Your Mother series. Lori has written a book and blogs about open adoption. Also in the audience will be a friend of a friend who I've never met in person. She and her husband also adopted and she provided tremendous support to us during our California "vacation" last summer (start with this post and go backwards if you would like to catch up). It feels fitting to finally get to put a face to the friendly emails we've received from her during this week of signs.

We certainly have no way of knowing if this week's signs will amount to anything. They haven't in our past. However, emotions during the experience of The Wait are important to recognize. Living in the moment with reminders popping up every now and then about what might be creates an optimism that is absent sometimes. When it's present, all things seem possible.