Monday Smiles – 4/18/2011

Allison of (life)lessons recently asked on her blog, What methods of choosing a spouse have you seen be effective?    Although Muri and I came from different religious backgrounds, one thing that has served us well is common values.  One value that has served us well is love of family.   We both came into marriage wanting children and, as youngsters are wont to do, we assumed it would just happen.   It didn’t.   After years of trying (and before the in vitro revolution), we made a decision to adopt.  Back in the seventies, it was still possible to adopt babies through the Orange County Adoption Agency, and after a long screening process, we were added to the list.   Although we were given the opportunity to choose a gender, we declined, assuming we could specify gender for our second child so we’d have a boy and a girl.

The arrival of our son, Aaron, was quite remarkable for its timing.  My parents, who only visited us only once from Connecticut in the many years we were in California, were in town for a week when the phone call finally came.  We have a ten week old baby boy for you.  Would you like to come meet him?   A day later, he was in our family room, able to meet his Grandma and Grampa on his very first day in our family.  Here we are in our backyard on the happy day.  Who the heck are those skinny, long-haired people on the right?

Grampa, Grandma, Aaron and Unidentified Long Hairs

Growing up on the West Coast, our kids didn’t see a lot of family.  Our friends, Don and Jackie, were as close to family as friends could be, and their daughters, Debbee and Monica, were certainly like cousins to our kids.  We had dinner with Jackie in San Diego this weekend and I was telling her about a picture I’d found of her girls with Aaron on his first day home, hence this post.

Monica, Aaron and Debbee

A lot of years have rolled under the bridge since that day.   My son is 36 and the babies in my life are grandkids.  Even they are starting to grow up.   But it’s Monday and I’m looking back to the day our first baby came home.  I’m smiling.

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Tags: family, fatherhood, feeling older, friends, grandchildren, gratitude, marriage, Monday smiles, postaday2011, smiles

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