The cat is officially out of the bag!

I must admit that I was very nervous to make the announcement to my coworkers that my husband and I are adopting. Several women that I work with are either expecting or are new mothers. After each announcement the office seemed to erupt in excitement and celebration. This excitement was unfortunately quite painful when I miscarried because I was mourning silently trying not to let my "girl emotions" get in my way while trying to work in the male dominated field of engineering. And it didn't get any easier when we were blessed with the opportunity to adopt because I was afraid no one would celebrate the same with me since I wasn't taking the "normal" path to motherhood. The one that most people can relate to. Side note: For those who know me, isn't it weird that I would be afraid of that? Even from a young age I preferred NOT to be normal!

I assumed that people would give me strained, knowing looks and say things like, "Isn't that nice!" all while secretly looking down on me for taking what they considered a "lesser" road to motherhood. I know that I shouldn't let the opinions of others effect me. I never let it bother me when people made fun of my (purposefully) mismatched clothes in high school and college. I considered them my own personal art form and instead focused on the people that complemented my unique fashion style including some of my teachers, random people I met at the mall or movie theatre, my friends and peers, etc. But for some reason I have really been sensitive about people looking down on me for adopting. I was irate when someone told me, "How kind of you to give this poor child a good home." Excuse me? That is exactly what the vet said (except switch the word child with dog) when we first brought our rescue dog Lukin in to see her. Adopting Lukin and adopting River are very different situations and I resent it when people treat the two similarly. Perhaps I'm just extra sensitive because of my own insecurities, but I also get very defensive because I don't want anyone to treat River any differently.

Last week I finally buckled down and told my boss. For work reasons alone, I could tell he wasn't very happy. We are pretty swamped right now at work and I'm the third person to take time off and then to drop to part time this year and a fourth will be doing the same at the end of the year. However, thanks to the FMLA he can't do anything about it and so we discussed the amount of time I planned on taking off for maternity leave and the part time schedule I plan on working once I come back. Once I got that out of the way, the Human Resources rep at my work sent out an announcement email to the office. Again I was very nervous because that was when the potential for strained comments and looks would reach its peak. Immediately, however, several comments came in that were very positive! Not only were people celebrating with me they seemed genuinely excited for me and had lots of questions about the adoption process including why I hadn't mentioned anything earlier. The coolest experience came when a coworker I had never met (because she was part of a recent business acquisition and still works from home) emailed me to tell me congratulations and thanks for the inspiration as she and her husband are in the process of adopting. By exchanging emails we learned that we had lots more than just adoption in common including troubles getting pregnant, miscarriages at 6 weeks, and using acupuncture to treat infertility. For me that meant so much because I love talking to adopting parents. It is such a fun community to be a part of and now I have someone else from that community who is conveniently also in my work community.

Daily I am amazed at the way the Lord tailors our experiences us to fit us perfectly so that we can learn and grow the way we need to. I have learned so much over the past 25 weeks and even though it hasn't always been easy, every second has been worth it! I just love what a beautiful story my son already has and I can't wait to share it with him as often as he is interested in listening.

Thank you for listening, too!