Day 15: So It Goes With Adoption

Note: Adoption Year is catching on! Readers are promoting it to their friends. If you would like Adoption Year business cards to pass on, email me at chrissheinz (at) gmail.com and we'll send you some.

Today we attended the Fall Festival at Way Fruit Farm. We invited our friend Theresa, who is Asia's very special babysitter. Our end goal is for Rex to be comfortable with her, so eventually Colette and I can go out. Theresa came to our house, was introduced to Rex in the play room, and they started playing together. All was well, so we boarded the van.

When everyone took their seats, Rex wasn't happy--he wanted Theresa to sit next to him--so she did and he stopped crying. "Great! He likes her already," I thought, as I started planning our next date night in my head. When we arrived, we got out and Mommy tried to hold Rex, but he started crying again and pointed to Theresa. "Cool, umm, Theresa, got any plans for tonight?" is what I almost said, but then I noticed the look on Colette's face. And that's how it went all morning--Rex crying, Mommy trying to hold him, Rex reaching for Theresa. No matter how hard Mommy tried to pacify him, she couldn't.

Poor Theresa didn't know what to do--should she hold him or shouldn't she hold him? She saw the dilemma. She did the right thing, though, following our direction. Finally Rex calmed down, Theresa kind of moved to the background, and Colette took him. He clung to her from then on. We don't know what happened here. Maybe Theresa reminded Rex of someone from his past. Maybe being in a new place confused him. Maybe he thought she was his new Mommy. We don't know for sure; we have no answers, only questions. So it goes with adoption.