Our Journey For Cole: 09/18/07

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

We Are Family

Greetings from Uzbekistan! We made it!! After 2 lengthy flights, 1 bus shuttle, and a horrendous arrival into customs in Tashkent...we're unpacked & in our hotel just a mere 30 hours later.

Our first evening was spent unpacking & decompressing.

On Tuesday morning our coordinator picked us up and drove of us all over the city to various stops and/or appointments that we needed to make.

We were able to get Cole's new birth certificate. And, we got back to our hotel around 1pm, to prepare our room & ourselves for Cole's arrival.

Cole arrived at our hotel around 3:30 with our coordinator, his nanny, & another friend of our coordinator. He was a little confused about his new surroundings, and after talking for a bit in the lobby, we headed to our room. We spent about a half hour talking, and letting him adjust. I believe he only cried for a few minutes initially after everyone left him with us. He handled it all very well.

I had him hysterically laughing after just a few short hours, and he's a huge fan of the Cheerios! The language barrier doesn't seem to be an issue, as he knows how to get his point across just fine.

We're now going to get some breakfast. I will try to add more today, or tonight!!

Adoptive Mothers Poem

Being an adoptive mother is not for every woman. She must possess not only the natural mother instinct but an understanding and appreciation of the situation that brought a child into her arms making her a mother.

The adoptive family comes to be by choices made, choices made by the first parents and by the adoptive parents. This bond the adoptive mother has with her child grows over time, like the child did within his first mother's womb. Day by day, touch by touch, with each tear, kiss, and memory made they became a family. Adoptive mothers have that special knack to let love grow.

The adoptive mother knows that she is a mender of wounds, not just of the physical skinned knees with a band-aid and a kiss, but of the heart. She gives love, acceptance, and permission to ask and talk about the day he was born and of his first parents. Adoptive mothers are embracers, not only of the child with many hugs and kisses, but of the child's heritage and history.

She embraces the facts of her child's past with strength for herself and the child. She's not only a memory maker planning family vacations, activities, and birthday parties, but also a memorykeeper. She's a tier of shoelaces and of hearts. She weaves lives together into a tapestry of a new family, with many different brightly, colored threads showcasing their individualities and family origins. Together they create one unit attached to each other.

Adoptive mothers are experts at finding lost objects, but understand and validate the profound, deep loss left by adoption. She allows the tears to fall and grief to be felt, allowing the mourning of the mom not there. She is secure in knowing that she's not a replacement, but a finisher of a race for someone who, for whatever reason, could not run any longer.

This role is not for the weak of spirit, or the easily wounded. Loving a child not born to her but calling him her own, but this is what she does, it is her calling. She is a mother.

Quick Facts

Uzbekistan, in the ancient cradle between the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya rivers, is the most historically fascinating of the Central Asian republics. Within it are some of the oldest towns in the world, some of the Silk Road's main centres and most of the region's architectural splendours. When To Go The best time to visit is in spring from May until the end of June, and in autumn from September until November. The weather is mild and in April the desert blooms briefly. In autumn it's harvest time, and the markets are full of fresh fruit. If you're interested in trekking the mountains, summer (July and August) is a better time to visit; at all other times the weather is unpredictable and there can be snow in the passes from Christmas to February. You may wish to remain in the mountains to stay cool, as the rest of the country will be sizzling at this time. But remember, whilst the mountains are pleasantly cool in summer, they are freezing in winter.