The End and The Beginning

We have almost made it through this adoption journey. When we started this process a year and a half ago I never imagine I would be making a transatlantic flight on my 29th birthday with an almost two year old, but here we are. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 1:00pm Moscow time. I don't know if I will get to or want to blog during our layover in Detroit so this is it for my daily records of our journey. I have every intention of keeping the blog going, but we will see. I have been so blessed to fill this space on the web my thoughts, feelings, and dreams. I have been even more blessed to "meet" so many other families in the same situation in which J.J. and I find ourselves. I was super excited to actually meet another family in person at the embassy on Tuesday. We have been praying for them and following their progress and then we met in person as if on accident but of course those don't really happen. Living in a small community it has been invaluable to me to steal and borrow the ideas and resources from our blogs. Thank you! I will probably never meet most of you in person, but I have been honored to share in your lives and I hope to continue to hear about your growing and changing families. Our own family has changes forever. We have a son! A beautiful, marvelous, silly, curious son! Thank you Xavier Manning for filling our lives with so much joy. People have told me over and over what I wonderful thing we are doing by adopting and I must admit I disagree. I think it a rather selfish thing at times. We wanted this child. We wanted him so much we traveled around the world to bring him home. We had a goal and we worked to make it happen and now we are the ones who get the reward. We have become parents because of this fabulous child. Now the real journey begins. I want to say, just in case I haven't said already, that these first few weeks will be so important for our new family. I know so many people have been involved in this adoption process and we want you to be part of Xavier's life. BUT (notice the big but here) J.J. and I have to be the ones to meet his needs, physically and emotionally. We must be the ones to feed him, change his diapers, give him a sippy, comfort him when he falls, help him go to sleep, give him bathes, etc. Anything that meets a need has to come from us. We want him to interact with others. We want him to meet you and know that he is surrounded with love. At the same time we need you to respect some boundaries as we work through the process of bonding as a family. I truly hope you understand and I believe you do, but if I have to remind you of something or ask you not to do something please try not to take it personally. We have to do what is best for our family. I do plan to have a big blow out birthday party in August if he seems ready to tolerate it. I figure I only have so long to pick the themes for such things so I hope to go with Dr. Seuss! Feel free to wear a crazy hat! Thanks again! We love you all bunches. J.J., Denise & Xavier Manning =)