Daily Dose of Mama: Adoptivus

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Adoptivus

This is an incredibly emotional week for me. I'm at work, having just got back from a business trip, and I am constantly near tears (and no, it's not a biological thing). I am just overwhelmed with an anniversary I am coining Adoptivus, and it's emotionally killing me with joy.

Adoptivus: Celebrated in the tiny kingdom of EM, Adoptivus is celebrated between September 13 and September 19, with festivities culminating on September 18. Adoptivus is the anniversary of Appa, Everyday Mama, and Little Bug's adoption journey to Korea and joining as a family. It begins with Sept. 13, the day Appa and Everyday Mama flew to Korea, peaks on Sept. 16 when they first met Little Bug and his foster mother, culminates on Sept. 18 when Little Bug joined their family physically, and ends on Sept. 19 with their arrival home to the United States. Celebrated each year by watching videos, rereading blog posts, and having a party family day.

Anyway, I adore celebrating anniversaries and rarely don't. This is our first year with Little Bug, so I'm experiencing all these memory emotions for the first time, and I am surprised by the overwhelming emotions that have been pouring out. I keep looking at the clock and thinking "where was I one year ago? "Oh yes, I was exploring the secret gardens of a palace" or "I was buying such and such at Insadong…" I keep telling people all about this, and I KNOW they are getting sick of hearing about my 1-year anniversary of getting to the hotel or eating my first mandu or seeing my first Buddhist temple.

It doesn't help that someone I know is in Korea right now walking almost identical steps to my own down to the hour. It's almost too much for me to read this week.

So, right this moment, a year ago exactly (considering the time difference), I was laying in bed at 1 am tossing and turning and trying to sleep in anticipation of meeting Little Bug for the first time. Appa was tossing and turning with me, and we both eventually got up and talked ourselves into a sleeping stupor. My gut was knotted and I kept having to remind myself that it was with excitement and not with stress or nerves.

In 9 hours from this moment, I will have known my son for 1 year….and writing that just brought the tears back.

Happy Adoptivus to us.

3 comments:

everythingismeowsomeSeptember 15, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Congratulations! What an emotional and happy time. Isaac was born on Halloween and every fall brings with it the crisp air, the pumpkins, the mums and the amazing memories of that time in our life. Being a mama is so amazing, isn't it? Happy Adoptivus!!!!!!
ReplyDelete
Replies
nancy and eric schwartzSeptember 15, 2009 at 8:25 PM
awe...
thinking of you...
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousSeptember 16, 2009 at 4:15 AM
this is my first visit to your "blournal" as you call it!

what a great post! ahhh, so many emotions! have you been sneaking back to old posts and watching video and looking at pictures and reading what you wrote? i look at ours every few weeks :)/

happy adoptivus!
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Thanks for your daily dose of you....

Everyday Mama

I'm a 32-year-old everyday mama. My husband (Appa) and I adopted our first son Little Bug (at 10 months old) from Korea in September 2008. We adopted our second son, Little Bro, from Korea in April 2011 at age 21 months. We adopted our third son,Little Moon, at age 3 in November 2013. I've wanted to be a mama for a long time, but I'm still trying to figure out the reality of it all and take time to enjoy the delicate beauty of the highs and the lows.

I worked full time as an editor, which I loved; but I made the bittersweet decision to stay home with my children after Little Bro came home. I'm now clumsily finding my footing in a new world of housekeeping, menu planning, budgeting, cooking, cleaning, and rainy-day activities, as well as navigating the world of IEPs, parent advocacy, and special needs education (spoiler: I suck at house work). My husband is hot and smart and quiet and loyal, and I think (know) my sons are the cutest, happiest little boys in the world.

I also struggle at times with mild depression, anxiety, post-adoption depression, my husband's constant absence due to his stressful and super time-consuming job, the challenges of helping my older son with his sometimes exhausting special needs, and our transition to a family of three little boys with just 19 and 14 months between them. I worry way too much about what people think of me, hate talking on the phone, and I am trying to trust myself more.

Oh yeah, I'm unable to give birth to children; love books, writing, traveling, and the color brown; hate to clean, cook, craft, or do laundry; allergic to pretty much everything but food (thank God); and think camping in anything but a tent is lame.

I needed somewhere to drop my daily mama thoughts and musings on toddler poop to avoid massive clutter and ramblings on our private family blog. Writing it down on paper is so '90s.

This is my everyday "blournal" as I navigate through my life as a first-time (or is it third-time now?) mama and long-time me. So....hi.

You can contact me at daily.dose.of.mama (at) gmail.com.

THE CONTENT OF THIS BLOG IS COPYRIGHT PROTECTED.

As an editor, I deal with people on a regular basis who think images or content on the internet (whether it does or does not have a copyright designation) are "fair use." Your lesson for the day is that anything someone writes or creates that is published on the internet is copyright protected, whether he or she spells it out or not. Although I doubt anyone wants to steal my riveting posts on toddler poop, it doesn't hurt to educate the world about the wonderful magic of online copyright law.