Well, it should be any day now that we receive our US approval to bring Julian home. Somehow you begin to tell yourself that you will be the exception. That everybody else waits 4 to 6 weeks, but you will be the one that it all happens in a flash. I have learned throughout this ordeal that it never is that way. But you always tell yourself that it is, I guess mostly to dream and make the wait easier, mentally. The truth is that nothing in this world is smooth and easy. Nothing worth much ever is and Julian is the golden trinket, the “Pink Panther” diamond (if you will) of a thing to wait for. So patience is a virtue and all we can do is prepare and make sure every last detail is addressed.
We begin to think towards the day that Julian comes to JFK. How shall we get there? What should we bring? What if he does not like us? I know at least the latter I have no need to worry. Jo-Ann, as most of you all know, is amazing with children. She has this amazing gift where children gravitate toward her. I think it is in her nature to be a mother. I sometimes question my own fathering abilities, but never her capacity to be a mother. If any of you have seen her with her nephew you would understand. Even nieces and nephews on my side, all love her. She is blessed with the ability to be a natural mother. Thank God for that.
We also have been thinking about how to make the transition from foster care to home. We have been preparing a package of things to send to his foster parents so that this transition can be easier. We fully accept that he is gonna be a bit cranky in the beginning. Given that he will be traveling half way around the world to a different time zone entirely to people he has never seen before. We figure the album that we send him with pictures of Jo-Ann and I will help with that. Hopefully, his foster mother can show Julian the pictures to help him get acquainted with Mommy and Daddy.
Jo-Ann has also been sleeping with this beautifully soft blanket we are sending him. Our hope is that he will sleep with this blanket in his foster home and get acquainted with our smell. It doesn’t hurt to try, at least when he comes home he will have something that is familiar with him. You should see Jo-Ann all snuggled up with the blanket in her arms. It fills me with hope and joy to see that and reminds me of why we wanted to do this in the first place.
I really can’t wait to see Julian in person. It is so odd, to miss someone you never met. In my mind he is missing us too, but he doesn’t know it yet.