Home at Last - Now What?

I remember a conversation I had many years ago with my father. I must have been in my late teens or very early twenties. Among the things we were discussing, the topic of parenthood came up. He was telling me about when he first came home from the hospital when my sister was born. All the preparation brought him to the place of getting ready for her birth. I wish I could remember his exact words so I'll have to paraphrase here. He expressed how scared he was. As soon as they came home with her, he thought, "Now what am I supposed to do?"

I'll have to admit, now that I'm home in California, for about a second I thought the same thing. After all, everything I have done for the past three years has been preparing me for the adoption itself. But that was when I was alone this morning before Lily woke up. As the day got rolling, I had no concern of what to do next. Everything just fell into place. But please don't read too far into this. This "falling into place" has nothing to do with me. It's 100% my wife. She was born to be Lily's mom. Those of you that know her, tell me if I'm wrong here. Even if you don't know her, look at the pictures of Mommy and Lily and you'll see what I'm talking about.

I'll use the words of Robin, one of our new friends we met in China. Arriving at breakfast the other morning in our hotel, I paused at Robin's table to greet her and children before getting to my table. Robin said in her southern drawl that "Julianne just looks different. From the beginning of the trip (we met in Beijing before we got our daughters) to now, she's just different. You can see it in her face. She's just glowing." I couldn't have agreed more.

A few days ago at the clinic when we had to listen to Lily's first doctor generalize about Lily's condition, "all these adopted babies are very severe; they are all malnourished." Then he got specific to Lily. "She does not look good. We'll have to run some tests and she might not be able to go home Friday." As I put walls up to not hear him, Julianne's heart just poured out for Lily.

More examples are not needed to make my point. Seeing how she and Lily are so connected is simply beautiful. Am I a blessed husband and father or what???

The very last picture I took in China.