It's been a year

One year ago today, 2 ordinary people went on an extraordinary journey to meet their one year old daughter for the first time. After years of walking through an unpredictable maze, the final destination to become parents was complete and the true adventure of a lifetime began. Their 20 pound, affect-less baby was now embarking on her extraordinary journey to a new country and a new family.

The forces that brought us all together remain a mystery to me but I know with every fiber in my being that Jasmine belongs nowhere else but with us. She is such a perfect fit that I believe I could have birthed her myself. I remember quite vividly telling myself that after she'd been with us for a year, we would be turning a corner for at that point, we could reverse the counting. Now her time in the orphanage is less than her life with us. I longed for this day and it is finally here, much, much quicker than I ever expected and with a tumultuous year behind us. No one, not a single soul, could have adequately told me about the challenges and rewards of parenting, not the years as a therapist helping families with their own messy problems, nor any experiences I've had with my own family, nieces, friends. That's because parenting is personal, a private endeavor that offers its unique challenges to those who chose it. What comes easy for me is a task to someone else. Nothing can prepare an individual for parenting their own child except having a child of one's own. I've learned more about myself becoming a parent than any other adventure so far (although marriage is a fierce competitor)--what I'm attached to, what I don't want to give up, ways that I am selfish and ways that I can give with abandon. What I know is that Jasmine is wholeheartedly attached to us both, loves me unconditionally, accepts most of my shortcomings, demands my full attention, adapts easily to things but loves her routine and has claimed this little house and these ordinary people as her parents. She gets lots of one on one time at home with both of us and loves commanding an audience. She is, in all of her extraordinariness, a perfectly well-adjusted 2 year old. And this is the perfect gift one year later.