Today is a very special day at Casa Brillig. We mark it every year in the same way we treat birthdays anniversaries and other How Our Family Came To Be days. November 28, 2017 is the 8th anniversary of Gotcha Day, when we first met in person our adopted son K2. Please grab a slice of Gotchaversary Cake and a celebratory beverage and join us below the fold, after a word from the sponsor that’s been here since before our Gotcha Day!
Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
I’ve written about our Gotcha Day before, but so much has happened since that first look way back in 2011. For those who don’t want to click back to that original diary:
We [brillig, mik and K1] left for London the Monday before Thanksgiving 2009, spent a few days visiting friends, then the day after a Thanksgiving spent with friends at a lovely little Brazilian restaurant in SoHo, we flew to Addis Ababa. Jet-lagged and achy after 9 hours on The Least-Legroom Jet Ever, we met our driver from the orphanage, loaded our bags in, and arrived at Horizon House. We thought we'd have some time to freshen up before we met OUR SON for the very first time, but as soon as we stepped out of the van, one of the nannies asked who we were there to meet. We gave K2's name, and suddenly "K2, your Mommy Daddy Sister here!!" and he came immediately over to hug us!!!
That day was November 28, 2009, heretofore Gotcha Day at Casa Brillig.
We spent a week in Ethiopia, visiting the area in Arbegona where he was born, obtaining his travel visa in Addis, and soaking up the food and culture of the wonderful people there as we got to know our son. Nine other families were also there meeting their children, and we are in touch with most of them as well as several families whose children were at the orphanage but were traveling weeks later… they’re our Ethiopian family of choice who we don’t see nearly often enough :(.
It’s both hard to believe K2 has been a part of our family for eight years already, and simultaneously that he hasn’t been for ALL of his 12 ½ years. As do all children, he’s enriched our lives immeasurably as we have done his. Without K2 I would not know soccer nearly as well as I do (I almost understand offsides, after 6 years!) and I probably would not know exactly how long the charge on an XBox or Wii remote lasts. I wouldn’t know the sound my kids make when they are laughing together over something I didn’t see or hear (or the screaming back when both were younger and tempers would flare, but this is a happy diary so enough about that!).
K2 is not the reason I believe down to the core of my soul that #BlackLivesMatter, but he IS the face I see when I tell people I fear for the lives of people of color in America. He has a smile that lights up a room, eyes that sparkle when he’s happy, and is one of the smartest students in his seventh grade class. He could not be more my son if I’d given physical birth to him, and he and his sister have been as close as siblings with a seven year age gap can be. I won’t post pictures of you here because privacy concerns, but trust me (or anyone who’s met him at the last two Netroots Nations — he’s the most handsome 12 year old I know.
Happy Gotchaversary Day, K2!
Now please join us for what you really come here for, the trio of Top Comments, Mojo and Pictures that form the backbone of this community diary series. We depend on YOU for comment nominations, and I rely on the steady and wonderful BeninSC for formatting assistance!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
Note: Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From greenbird:
This comment from se portland depicts a true TC black and blue holiday! Abandon it all and run for your f*** lives !!
bird
Highlighted by TomP:
Is this comment by burlydee about how this latest focus on sexual harassment still leaves very many women out, in TomP’s diary about the subject.
Highlighted by howabout:
Is this comment by Claudia cox, on morale and active focus in these trying times! In today’s GNR diary, by GoodNewsRoundup. Claudia particularly likes the 18 reasons for hope contained therein!
Top Mojo ala mik!
For Monday, November 27, 2017, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on the subject.
Top Pictures
2017-11-28, courtesy of jotter!