And now for something completely different

I don't normally get very personal in my posts. I try to keep it about the farm stuff. Fun and light (for the most part) and not too heavy. Today, though, I felt moved to get a little personal.

I was adopted when I was three days old. My parents had tried to have a baby and had suffered through several miscarriages, as well as several failed adoptions. My mother is one of the few people I have ever known who was absolutely put on this earth to raise children, so when they couldn't have any biologically, they adopted. Here's a picture of my mom holding me on the way home from the hospital. Keep in mind this was in the seventies, so car seats weren't a thing yet.

My mom has told me a million times how her face hurt for the first three months after they brought me home. She finally figured out it was because she was smiling all the time, so big that it made her jaws ache.

I had the usual adopted kid angst growing up; it is unavoidable. Where did I come from, why didn't my birth mother want me, etc. That angst was always in the background, though. It wasn't my story, just a subplot. My parents made me feel loved and wanted from the first minute they saw me, and that hasn't changed even though I am now in (ahem) middle age.

Since they had struggled through so many near-child experiences before they got me, they didn't tell my grandparents that they were trying again until they actually had physical custody of me. My mom is the oldest of nine kids, my dad is an only child, so his parents were particularly excited about having grandchildren. Here's the look on my Grandma's face when they showed up with me. No warning whatsoever.

There was a lawyer who helped with the paperwork on my adoption. We moved all over the country when I was growing up, but my parents moved back home twenty years ago to take care of my grandparents as they were aging. It turns out the lawyer still lives there and is still practicing! Here's a picture of him holding me not long after I was adopted.

My parents went on to adopt three more children, of several different races. When we all get together it looks like the model UN.

My younger sister has gotten herself in a bit of legal trouble. She has to appear in court at the end of the month, and the court was telling her she couldn't get a public defender until after her initial appearance. I thought that was a bad idea, and it didn't seem legal to make her appear without a lawyer when she can't afford one. Then she texted me and said our dad had found her a lawyer. I knew instantly who she meant. My dad isn't the kind of guy who knows a lot of lawyers. To my knowledge he knows two, and one is a relative who they wouldn't ask for help except maybe in a death row sort of situation. So this lawyer who helped my parents become parents, sat down with my sister and counseled her. He is in his eighties now, but was still willing to sit down with my sister (pro bono) and give her what help he could. I am not sure why this has moved me so deeply, except that I am so grateful to have been raised by my wonderful parents that I feel somehow connected and indebted to this man who I have never met who helped to make it possible. And now he is helping once again.

So that's my origin story, I guess! Like I said, I don't know why I am feeling so moved by this man's act of kindness, except that the picture of him holding me is in my baby book, so I have always known about him, but as a sort of mythical creature. He is very real, and obviously still very kind. I hope I haven't drowned everyone in saccharine, but this was the post I needed to make today. It should be obvious that I didn't take any of the photos in this post! Credit goes to my dad. For a lot more than just the photos! I apologize for the iffy quality of the pictures, but that's because they're vintage. Not too old a vintage, to be clear.

Be well, everyone, and go hug a mom! Even if it's not your mom!