Jor-El Made the Right Decision

The Erb Women

Oh, how could one not look at Miss Jill, Mary Jane, and Betsy Jo and not love their infinite cuteness.  And they all adamantly remind us all that, yes, Superman was indeed adopted as well.  Jor-El and his wife made the right decision. 

Mary Jane and Betsy Jo will be Supergirls... our Supergirls.  Will they bend steel, fly faster than a speeding bullet, or leap tall buildings in a single bound?  Maybe.  But we don't need them to  in order to be our daughters.  They will love us as parents and we will love them as children.  And I'll do everything in my power to prevent whatever metaphorical Kryptonite there is out there from harming them.  Now if for some reason, they pick up a few supervillains along the way... that's on them.  I can only give advice.  (I think I'll cut the Superman conceit here as you and I both know Clark Kent's adopted father doesn't make it much past the first act.)

At some point there should be a musical score from John Williams backing this post.  OK, maybe not but that's how I feel.

Mommy Playing with Our Girls

Amidst all the bunny comments, Bruin basketball, and Academic Decathlon triumphs... sometimes I just need to step back and admit how much I love my women.  They are strong.  They are funny.  They are the best.

Happy Birthday, Mary Jane!

One year ago Miss Jill and I were sitting around in Victorville... waiting, waiting, and waiting for the word.  Finally hearing a late afternoon update that the birthmother would be delivering in the evening.  So in a wise move, we actually went to sleep around 6pm and then around 9pm we were awakened by a call from the hospital.  Off to Desert Valley Hospital we went...

Just before midnight, Mary Jane came into the world... I don't have any pictures on this computer with those but if you scroll back to last year at this time, I should have some.

We held her three minutes after she was born.  When she instinctively grabbed my finger when I touched her hand, I knew that she was ours.  O happy girl!

The Surprise Call

Now to backtrack a little bit here. Unknown to many people, we were matched as potential adoptive parents with a woman in Arizona. At first we thought it might be too soon as Mary Jane was just a few months old. But as we thought about it, it would be perfect for MJ to have a younger sister quite close to her in age. So we moved forward with the adoption process.

Yesterday Jill and I were at my sister's for a family barbecue. I was going to tell them at some point but then we were beaten to the punch by a phone call. The birth mother Jenn called us to say that her water had broken. Egads! Well, no hiding that surprise bit of news anymore. Nothing quite like telling your family that you're going to have to leave early because you're going to adopt a brand new child in another state in just a few hours.

Oh yes, nothing like a long drive out on the 40. It's not a bad ride... just quite full of desert, that's all. Quite coincidentally Mary Jane was born in a desert town as well, Victorville. The temperature at Betsy Jo's birth was still 102. Ouch. Conversely, it was a mere 55 or so in December for MJ's birth. We arrived just in time to hear the good news about Elizabeth's birth.

Oh, she screamed a lot the first night. But wouldn't you? Yeah, after nine months of security to be tossed out into the world of lights and noises... goodness, I'd scream as well!

Pictures will be downloaded as soon as we can get Grampa Kendall's computer for such things. More updates in a bit.

Home!

Wow, the long and winding road has finally returned home. And quite soon I may add. After other possibly failed adoptions in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, it was quite a relief to add a child in California and thus avoid all the inter-state paperwork which would take over a week (depending on the state, day of the week, and incompetent bureaucracy.

Mary Jane is now sitting in the a small swinging-rocking thing with music playing. Beats the heck out of me what it is called; I only use great nouns and adjectives for term papers. Otherwise it's a whatchamacallit.

The bunnies have already hopped freely into the house and wondered what that noise making creature is. Ah, that will be the monster which will chase you in years to come!

I have no downloaded pictures on the computer yet. Boxes and bags still remain laying around on the ground. Nothing like re-coordinating things after a trek... albeit a shorter one.

The nursing crew at the Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville were great. They helped us with whatever we needed and even allowed us to stay in a room there. Hey, at least the TV had ESPN but I didn't watch it much. No WiFi though thus the slower response in saying, "It's a girl!"

Now I think I'll pull a Miss Jill and take a nap.

I Don't Know My Metric System

Four centimeters? Good? Bad? Is that like an inch?

And what's taking so long? Shouldn't birth mothers be all "Snap, let's get this thang done!"

Mojave Narrows Regional Park... for now...

The birth-mother still hasn't proceeded to full labor yet so we're driving out to the local regional park for lunch. Some trees, some lakes, some wilderness...

Yeah... just more waiting. But that's ok... gotta think long term. Like when our child will be 15 and stomps their foot and says how mean we are. (Wait, our rabbits do that every day!)