One Whole Year

August 15th marked one whole year that we have been home with our son. That is amazing and wonderful. I just can not believe it has been a year. Yesterday we went out to eat some Ethiopian food to mark the occasion. I hope in the future we can continue to take note of this day, with some special family time and delicious Ethiopian food. Daniel asks, "Why can't we just celebrate his birthday?" After some thought, this is my answer. My birthday as a kid was about how old I was becoming, a birthday party, presents, but also a time when I asked questions about my birth and my joining the family. I remember wanting to know what time of day I was born and was my dad there and what was happening when I was born. I learned things about my birth and the birth of my siblings when we were excited about our birthdays and asking questions. I learned that on the birthday of my sister, the first child, my mom wouldn't let my dad leave her side the whole time they were in the hospital. Apparently, my dad was so hungry he was going to pass out from lack of nutrition, because my mom didn't want him to leave her side. I learned that I was going to be a breech baby and that my aunt was scheduled to fly out for my birth to help my mom after the possible surgery she would have to deliver me. I ended up turning around before my birthday and was born without the need for surgical intervention. I also learned when my mother was in labor with her third child, my brother, she drove herself to the hospital and my dad came later after things had progressed. A far cry from the birth of their first child. I remember these stories from my childhood (although my parents will probably read this and say I remember the stories all wrong), and I realize that birthdays aren't just about how old you are going to be and what kind of birthday party will be planned. Birthdays are also a celebration of a child's joining a family, a time that parents and child think about that time when they were born, and for lots of people that coincides with joining their family that they will be with forever. Melkamu's birthday does not coincide with the time that he joined the family he will now be with forever. He will certainly ask questions on his birthday, as he gets older, about his birth and we will tell him all the information we know about his birth in Ethiopia. I also want him to have a day to reflect on the story that was born when he joined our family forever...August 15th, 2010, when all three of us came home as a family.

And Daniel, in response to that reflection, says, "Yeah, that's true, but it doesn't have to be a party right. It's just family." Yeah Daniel, don't worry, It'll be a Family Day. And so it goes, the birth of our Family Day.

August 15, 2010

August 15, 2011