I AM LUKE AND MARAN'S MOTHER!

OK so just when you think you have heard it all you get taken aback.  First and foremost I usually am not a trouble maker and if given the chance I take the non-confrontational route (unless it is with my boss and that's a whole different issue and another blog...we just know each other too well).  I have always been super positive and I try to see the best in everything even if it is collard greens.  (I am from the south but don't do greens because they smell and like raisins they do weird things in your mouth).  However,  here goes.............  "DON'T TELL ME I AM NOT A MOTHER".  Also if you say one more thing to me about 'buying a baby' I may just come unglued on you and believe me that is not a pretty sight.  Passive Aggressive... oh yes... when you tell me I am not a mother.  No I did not give birth to our children.  There is NO WAY that we could love Luke and Maran any more than what we do.  Each and every day our love grows and it is INCREDIBLE to me.  I have the "PROTECTIVE" tendencies that many mother's have and I hurt when he hurts.  I hurt when I see others being mean to him and I can cry when I talk about him.  If there is a problem with him being a 'gift' then I am sorry.  Should I call him a "parcel" instead?  Should I call Maran a "parcelette".  I understand if people see adoption as "UNCONVENTIONAL".  In a way it is because we have been taught that a man and a woman marry and they have children.  Pretty much end of story right?  Well, not all story books are the same.  I feel sorry for those who feel that it is OK for children and young adults to grow up without a family.  I feel even sorrier for those who think that people adopt to "SAVE A CHILD".  I am not saving a child.  I am selfish.  I want a family and this is how my family will become. Conventional or not it is our route and we would take it again ANY DAY of the week.  We have the most perfect family picture of all.  Mom is chubby, Dad is going bald (which I think is totally sexy) Luke is the cutest thing ever and Maran will just up that "CUTE" factor a few notches.  We have not "saved" anyone.  Our children have saved us.  They have come into our lives when we needed it.  Just when we were taking life too seriously Luke was placed in our arms.  Three years later and countless laughs, smiles and hugs we could not be in a better place.  He knows only us.  He doesn't recall his foster home days and he clearly does not remember his birth mother.  I am grateful for his birth mother and think of her often.  I thank her for caring for herself while she was carrying him and thank her for allowing us the opportunity to be his family.  We will never see her.  We have a picture of her but she does not know where he is. The picture is in our safe deposit box. She only knows that he is in America somewhere and has a house that has a big back yard.  That was pretty much all she was told.  If Luke ever wants to see the picture he can. (He clearly looks like his birth father although it is uncanny that he has my nose).  Luke and Maran have some resemblances... the dimples and pretty skin color.  My mother would LOVE to be here to put her fingers in Luke's dimples and Maran's too.  I tried to make dimples for my mom when I was little.  She always loved everyone else's dimples and I have none.  I taped peas to the sides of my face in hopes to make dimples for her.  It clearly only did some exfoliation work for me.  Oh well.  So this MOM is now going to get her son and take him to swim lessons and field play.  I will also give him hugs and kisses and ask about his day.  We will eat a snack and we will wait for Daddy to come  home.  We will play and we will talk.  We will read and we will snuggle.  We will talk about Luke's birthday and we will talk about our guesstimate of the time frame before we go to get his little sister Maran.  Tonight we will pray for our entire family and for Maran and her now orphanage family.  When he goes to bed I will continue to go through the PRE-K paperwork and figure out what our options are for him for the next school year.  I will attempt to learn some Chinese words (this I have NOT been a success with) but I will continue to try.  So, if I am not a Mom I am not sure what I am.