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National Adoption Awareness Day: Disney Pixar CARS Style

Yesterday was official National Adoption Awareness day....  In our world it was a perfect day to celebrate adoption.  Yesterday we partied the day away in celebration of Tedi's 4th birthday (which is tomorrow...we think...see paragraph below).  My mother and mother-in-law helped me immensely in planning a huge, but well executed party.  We had over 50 people there and probably about 20-25 children...4 or 5 from Tedi's class at school, several family members' children, close friends's children, and many other adopted children.  Even several families in the process of adopting came to support our family and celebrate Tedi.  While it was hectic, crowded, busy, and quite honestly overwhelming for this first time mom, it was such a blessing to my heart to see the pure and innocent excitement consume my son.  Admittedly, he was overwhelmed at times but so full of joy.  He could not believe that all of the people, gifts, food were all for him. 


For the party, (since it was his first American party and likely the first one to be celebrated at all), JT and I bit the bullett and rented a bounce house thingy for the party.  It was decorated with all of the characters from Cars...Lightening McQueen, Mater, Sally, Ramone... (for of those of your Cars fans).  It was a wild and crazy place with probably too much pushing (sorry if your kid was pushed....I think they all were).  At least my child was the only one who had tears after a fall...  Despite the chaos, I peeked in at one moment to see five Ethiopian children, one African American child, and four Caucasian children... THAT is ADOPTION AWARENESS.  I like to think heaven will look something like this...a mix of ages, personalities, minus the pushing without regard for the color of their skin.  Prior to the party, I emailed one of the mothers of Tedi's classmates to thank her son for being so accomodating and accepting of Tedi.  She told me yesterday that she did not know Tedi was adopted so she thought by my words that something was different about him.  When she asked her son if Tedi was different in some way, he said, "No.  He just has black hair."  What do you really say to that.  Unfortunately, the picture below is the only one I have so far.  My mom took tons of pictures (I hope others did too). And again, if your child was pushed, I apologize.

 
Yesterday's party also wrought some saddness in my heart. I thought about Tedi's birth mother, and all that she is missing....the pain it must cause her to have him worlds away...I am so thankful for the her most precious gift....her son....now mine.  May she know he is happy and loved on his birthday.  I hope to write more on this tomorrow, on the day of his birth.

I am going to post this now at 11:34 p.  I am on call and going to try to catch a bit of sleep!
Happy Adoption Awareness Day!