A Real Adoption Conversation

I should’ve known it was coming. What with watching a cow being born at the state fair, and his fairy Godmother having a baby.   

Henry and I have been talking a lot lately about how he used to be in my tummy and the day he was born.  We look at the pictures of when I was on bedrest and pregnant with him and we talk about how he wanted to come too early because he was so excited to be our little boy.  So I had to stay in the hospital, almost upside down (yes, Henry, somewhat like a bat), until it was time for him to come out into the world.  So it was only a matter of time that he wondered about Gracie as well.*

Setting: At the dinner table with Grace, Henry, and my 12 yr old niece, Rebekah (over to help me with the kids since Sloan is in PA)

Henry:  Rebekah, did you know Auntie Ann had a baby come out of her tummy and she feeds baby Katherine with her milk?  

Rebekah blushes at the discussion of breastfeeding.

Henry:  And I was in mommy’s tummy.  I was born on my birthday and was a little baby.

Rebekah: (laughing) Yes, you were.

Me:  And Rebekah was in Aunt Sonya’s tummy and was a little baby too.

Henry:  And Gracie was in your tummy?

Me:  Actually, God did something different for Gracie.  She grew in another Mommy’s tummy.  We call her Gracie’s birthmother.

Henry:  Bird mother?

Me:  Birthmother.  Gracie grew in Miss C’s tummy but she was very sick and she didn’t have a Daddy for Gracie.  And and we did have a Daddy for her, so when Gracie was born, we adopted her.  That’s how she came to our family.  So while you grew in my tummy, Gracie grew in my heart.

Henry:  Oh.  (Pause) Did you know I like to cut shapes out of pictures?

Nice.  

*I’m fairly certain that in all of the adoption books and manuals we read, the first adoption conversation was supposed to be more profound and moving than this one.