Everything to Me

They say laughter is the best medicine.  I'd have to say hand-drawn get-well cards from five-year-old boys might be even better.

David brought this home from church on Sunday and handed it to me, pointing to the figure on the left and identifying that as himself, then telling me that the figure on the right was me.  I suppose a psychologist could deduce something from his portrayal of himself as larger than me (don't they always make kids draw pictures of their family?).  Is it a good thing that he's bigger?  A sign of a healthy relationship between mother and son?  I certainly hope so.  :)

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I never know what's lurking in my email inbox.

I've been devoting a little extra time this month to clearing out my emails.  At the beginning of the month, I was at 261; and now I'm down to 125.  Woohoo!

One night as I was trudging through my inbox, I came upon an email from my sister-in-law Lori.  It was sent on January 30, 2008.  Yes, more than 3 years ago.  She, a mother of three adopted children, wrote, "Grab a box of tissues, click on this link, and watch the video.  God bless birth mothers everywhere!"  Would you believe that, in these 3+ years that email sat in my inbox, despite her instructions, I never clicked on that link and watched that video?!  I distinctly remember first reading the email and thinking, "I can't handle more emotion right now [Tobin was a newborn, and I was in the midst of the crazy postpartum hormones that leave me weepier-than-usual...and when a woman's "usual" is weepy anyway, her "weepier-than-usual" is, in a word, drenched], so I'm not going to watch this now.  But I'll keep it as new and do it later."  Well, "later" came 38 months after the email was sent!!  :)

(I wanted to embed the video in this post, but embedding was disabled for it.  Oh, well.  The link works.)  :)

Tonight I thank God for four special women:  the birth mother of my sister Donna, the birth mother of my brother Doug, the birth mother of my nephew Jason and niece Sheena, and the birth mother of my nephews Jacob and Isaac and niece Elizabeth.  Two of them live here in the States; one lives (lived?) in Puerto Rico; one lives (lived?) in Guatemala.  They might never show up in our official family tree, but one thing is for sure:  our tree would be missing whole branches and would look awfully lopsided without them.

Thank You, God, that they chose life.