the last two weeks have been a whirlwind. We’d stayed in C’s hometown for a few days after the hospital stay just in case she wanted to visit with us and the baby and she had asked us to visit her that first Friday. We visited with her for about five hours that day. It was nice to see her with the baby after we’d been away for a few days, but we could tell that it was hard for her to say goodbye when we left. She told us that she wanted to see us one last time before we went back home, but didn’t want to spend time with us other than that–it was just too hard.
So, we went to San Antonio and spent time with my extended family there. They threw us a small family baby shower (with mini burgers, mini hot dogs, mini fish tacos and mini chicken fajitas, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, potato salad made with baby potatoes and for dessert? mini brownies, mini strawberry shortcakes, and mini ice cream sandwiches— SO cute!!) and we spent the next few days sleeping in, being lazy, eating wonderful food (I love my aunties!) and just floating around in this bubble of time, figuring out how we function as a family of three.
We found out last Thursday that the Interstate Compact paperwork had gone through, so we headed out to “C’s” hometown on Friday for one last visit before heading home. Again, we spent at least five hours hanging out with her–we took her out for lunch and then went back to her place to talk some more. We got some good photos and a few videos of her holding him and we made some good memories that afternoon.
On Saturday, we began the long trek home. We stopped for a few hours in Oklahoma to visit the cousins there and to take a break from being in a car seat, then one last push up to Kansas where we stayed with J’s grandma. On Sunday, we took a day of rest in Kansas, visiting with the rest of J’s extended family, including a visit to Grandpa who is in a nursing home . He can’t really see or hear or communicate very well any more, but he did ask if he could hold Gabriel and I think he enjoyed being able to hold this little boy.
Monday, we geared up for one last push home. Gabriel is a great traveler at this point–pretty much sleeping the whole way. Somewhere in Iowa, his umbilical cord fell off (woo hoo, first milestone! hmmm…. is there an umbilical cord fairy?). We got home around 8:00 and tumbled out of the car, bringing in only the necessities at first (diaper bag, baby). Gabriel had finally gotten tired of being in the car, about 20 minutes away from home (how do kids DO that?) and needed to be fed and changed and allowed to wiggle around. When we got inside, we discovered that our dear friends had left us flowers, balloons, chocolate, yummy beverages, artwork from the kids, four mason jars of turkey chili and a pan of cornbread (which REALLY hit the spot!), milk, eggs and bread in our fridge and a treasure trove of frozen breastmilk in the freezer. We feel so very blessed! I wanted to soak it all in, but Gabriel was still rather unhappy, so I went upstairs and changed him on his changing table for the first time, then sat with him in the glider. And then it hit me. Here I was, in this glider, in this nursery where I’d sat so often these past few months, dreaming about holding a child in my arms and here he was. Tiny, squishy baby body, warming my heart, calming down along with the rocking of the chair and just as he stopped crying, the tears began to flow down my own face. We. are. home.
(photos by Christa Moreland)