Adoption: 7 Month Update

Today marks 7 months with Jac0b. I’ve been trying all week to write an update. I don’t want to miss marking it, but I couldn’t find the right words. As it turns out, I didn’t have the words at all.  Jac0b had just 8 words that sums up how things are going.

Last night the girls had friends over. I knew they would stay up late and I knew if I let Jac0b do the same, we’d have a rough day today. So I insisted he went to bed early. He wasn’t happy. I had to get my Mom-voice on.

After teeth brushing and more pleas to stay up, we eventually fell into bed. He’s usually pretty talkative at bed-time, but he was quiet. He’s fiddling with a few toys he keeps around his bed and for the first time and out of the blue he says, “Now it feels like you’re my real mom.”

That.

That is how it’s going. It’s all happening. It’s not easy and parts are messy, but we’re bonding. We’re becoming family.

My desire is not to replace anyone as a real anything, but I do want this relationship with him. I do want to be his mom and not just a caretaker. He’ll always have his birth mom and he’ll always have his foster mom, but for our 7 month anniversary, he gave me the gift of being his real, adoptive mom.