May 27,1988,November 15,1989, June 1 1993, September 3, 1995 are all airplane days in my family. What is an airplane day? It is that special wonderful day when your adopted child comes home. Follow me below the fold
So today we celebrate my son Kyle's homecoming. He was almost 5 months old and only weighed 9 lbs. He had been born with a cleft lip and palate and had spent his first months in a Vietnamese orphanage. There were 85 babies in that orphanage and only 4 caregivers. They would prop the baby bottles in the cribs but because of Kyle's cleft he had a very hard time getting any nourishment. When they handed him to me at the airport I was a bit nervous. He was so very tiny for being 5 months old. I had done a lot of research about cleft lip and palate babies and the difficulties in feeding them and had come up with a plan to create a different type of nipple to help him eat. It worked and he took a whole bottle before we even left the airport. The next obsatacle we had to overcome was his developmental delays. He had literally lived in a crib with little human contact and as a result would scream with every diaper change and try to push away when being held. I remember the first time he actually hugged me--it was 7 months after he came home. He didn't roll over until he was a year old but once he realized what mobility was he made up for lost time. I remember his first step--more like a running start! Then as years fly by--little league,boy scouts, varsity soccer, senior prom, high school graduation... He is now a junior in college studying bio-medical engineering(he wants to work on new technology for amputees) studying hard, so our celebration is long distance. I am writing this diary tonight to show him how proud his father and I are of him.
We have been blessed with four beautiful children and each and every annivesrary of their homecoming is a precious reminder of just how very lucky we are. We couldn't have imagined a more wonderful family. So to Kyle--HAPPY AIRPLANE DAY!!