My Sweet Boy

The nanny brought our new son in wearing a purple onesie not ten minutes after we first saw him. They had obviously woken him up from his nap. He clung to his nanny with those chubby arms locked solidly around her neck. He started screaming when he saw us. Again, not the introduction I had hoped for, but at the very least, I knew I had the right child this time. There was never a waiver. Despite his diagnosis of a heart defect, a cerebral palsy type diagnosis,  and severe pneumonia that left him hospitalized for 5 weeks as an infant, and what looked like on paper as some severe cognitive issues, he was ours.  I could have cared less what his papers said. I felt such relief!

I decided to take him out of the nannies arms after what seemed like 10 minutes of screaming from him thinking back to how you handle the nursery babies at church who scream for their moms. The nanny stood off to the side with tears in her eyes. I could tell she was very close to him.  I held his stiff little body in my arms and he put his cheek on mine. From this point on, Grant would always rest his cheek on mine. He was so very scared. He screamed when Eric came near him.  I'm not sure, but Eric may not even have gotten to hold him that first day.

We left the orphanage that day extremely exhausted but happy. We would soon discover that Grant was not a happy child. His solemn little heart and his sadness was almost palpable.  Someone once told me that I "got lucky with adoption because I didn't have to go through any of the pain of labor". Little did this person know just how much pain I went through with this adoption.