For All His Mothers

I have waited many years to go to Mass on Mother’s Day and make it through the service without crying my eyes out.  What a difference one little boy makes!

There are several women, however, that are especially present in my mind today.  All of them have been Mother to Francis, and thanks to them, he has known love.

I have no adequate words to express the gratitude I feel toward Francis’ birthmother for the awesome gift we are about to receive.  I hope she knows that we will treasure this boy – love him, care for him, educate him, and raise him to be a good, strong, and loving man who will remember her.

Today I also remember Francis’ birth-grandmother, who helped care for him.  Without her love and dedication to her daughter and her grandson, I would not be becoming a mother in a few months, and my mother would not be becoming a grandmother.  To these two women, “thank you” is not enough, and it never will be.

Francis has also lived with a foster mother and in his current orphanage with the most wonderful caretakers.  These women have been Mother to him over the years.  They have hugged him, kissed his boo-boos, sang to him, tended to him when he was sick – and he knows love.  For this, I thank them.  All of them.

I am also got to mention one more mother – one Francis knows of but hasn’t met yet.  My mother.  Without her love and support, I’m pretty sure I would not have survived the wait to the referral call.  The light in her eyes when she talks about this amazing little boy is brighter than the sun.  I am an only child, so Francis will be the only grandchild she and my father have.  My parents will be coming to the Philippines with us, and they can’t wait to meet their grandson.  They already think he hangs the moon.  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.  I love you.

Happy Mother’s Day to the Moms, Moms-to-be, and in particular, all those who are Moms in their hearts, but whose children have yet to be identified.

"Racing" Right Along

Knock on wood, things are moving along as they should in the process to bring Francis home.  His legals arrived yesterday, so the next step will be ICPC approval.  Unfortunately, our criminal background checks, child abuse clearances, and Pennsylvania fingerprints expired – ready for this?  Last week.  I did the criminal background checks online yesterday, mailed out the request for the child abuse clearance this morning, and we’ll go for fingerprinting Saturday morning.  I wonder if the people who do the fingerprinting at the UPS store know who we are yet, seeing as this will be the fourth time we’re being fingerprinted there.  Fortunately, our homestudy is still good until the end of June.

The package that we sent to Francis reached him at the end of April.  We were beyond blessed to receive a few pictures of him with his photo album and a few of the things that we put in the package.  He looks happy to have a family, and this lightens our hearts.  In one of the pictures he is holding the cars we sent him and the smile on his face is so big and so genuine he has dimples!  This is the first time we are seeing these dimples and such a genuine smile – we are so happy to know that he really is happy, and that maybe we helped put that smile on his face.

We are just about totally finished with Francis’ room.  We are going to replace the window in there, and then it will be all ready.  Hopefully he likes Cars, because that’s what we did.  He’s even got a genuine tire from one of Darrell Waltrip’s race cars from years gone by.  We’re not sure if it will be a table, chair, or toy box yet, but it works well in the room and is a pretty cool addition.  His ceiling is decked out with glow-in-the dark stars and planets.  Overall, we’re thrilled with how it came out.  Here are some pictures: