Thoughts on Motherhood

It's a day for introspection. I not only marked the start of my 28th year on Tuesday, but if you notice our ticker that counts the days since we began this crazy process, it's officially two years today. To be honest, I have a hard time remembering what life was like before adoption consumed my thoughts. Many days the wait for Mia to come home seems agonizingly long (especially now that I know she's actually real and out there waiting for us). Other days, I go from anxious and excited to overwhelmed and terrified. I'm going to have another human being depending on me for everything; our entire world will be transformed. The other day, Travis laughed and said, "They're going to give us a baby?!" We've had a good, long time just to ourselves. We're very thankful that we waited, and I know our marriage is strong and we've got a good base to build on, but nine years is a long time to get used to certain things. We talked the other night about things that would have to change, like listening to our iPod turned up loud, flying by the seat of our pants in the mornings, dinner at anytime of the night, being gone every night of the week, the list goes on and on. I know that it will all be totally worth it, but you have to admit, it's daunting. But, as Travis reminded me, there's no turning back now.

In other news, we received more pictures of our precious little Mia on Tuesday (the best birthday present ever!) from Bliss Rovang, who just returned home with her new daughter. She told us, "Little B*** is so tiny and I loved on her a lot. I don't think I have ever held such an itty bitty baby. I can't wait to see how much bigger she has gotten by the time you travel." And it's true, she is still itty bitty; the newborn outfit I sent is still big on her, but you can tell her cheeks are filling out. I think for a moment, I began to doubt that she was only a month old at referral because she is so alert in our first photos, but you can definitely tell her age in these, which is a relief in a way. I, too, can't wait to see how her personality will emerge over the next 8 or so weeks as she continues to grow and develop.

God is Gracious

As you might have guessed from the brand new countdown ticker at the top of the blog, we received our court date yesterday and are scheduled for May 26th. Actually, because of the 7 hour time difference, all the proceedings will actually occur while we're sleeping the night of the 25th. We should find out sometime on the 26th whether or not our baby is legally ours! We now have to keep praying over our case, specifically that God would be at work in the Ethiopian legal system and have everyone show up that needs to be present for our case to be heard. We should receive tentative travel dates in the next couple of weeks, but we think it might be 7/2 - 7/11.
Now that we have passed two very signficiant milestones, we wanted to (finally!) share the name we will give to our daughter: Emilia Jane Taylor. We will call her Mia, but we both really loved Amelia/Emilia; it just took us awhile to agree on the spelling. Travis prefers Emilia, and has done just about everything possible to convince me this was the best way to go, including telling me it was Ethiopian. If you know me at all, you know that I hardly ever take things at face value. A quick google search revealed not an Ethiopian heritage but in fact that Emilia is actually Italian in origin (Annie, I'm sure your dad would have loved that!). Quite surpisingly, there are a few well known Emilias in history, including Iago's wife in Shakespeare's Othello. Emilia means rival, emulating, kind, and graceful. Jane is after Jane Austen and Jane Bennett (you can tell her mother is an English major!) and means God is gracious. This is incredibly fitting having just celebrated Resurrection Sunday and Christ's ultimate gracious gift of the cross to us. And I pray that even in the midst of motherhood I will always remember God's gracious gift of Mia to us.

Care Package: Sent

We just Fed Exed our daughter's first care package to the Rovangs, who will be delivering it next week when they travel to pick up their daughter. We did limit ourselves to 1 gallon size zip lock bag, but it was packed full! I know we'll be sending more packages during our wait for court, but it's difficult to restrain ourselves from sending her the world. I guess that officially ordains me as a parent. This package contains:

• 5 newborn onesies
  
• 1 lightweight sleeper (check out the adorable feet - they're ladybugs!)
  
• 1 dressier outfit (Travis insisted she have something dressy to wear)
  
• Picture book filled with photos of her new mom, dad, and, of course, new dog Hank
  
• Soft zebra rattle
  
  

The Rovangs and Watsons have promised to take some more photos of her for us, so hopefully we'll have some new pics in a couple of weeks. We'll also receive a monthly update towards the end of April from our agency with new pictures, medical information, and answers to 5 questions I can ask her nannies. From what I've been told, I'll get basic information about how much she's eating and any medical updates, but I can ask about her schedule, personality, etc. Do any of you mothers out there have any suggestions on what I should ask?