Friday Flashback

Well, these Friday Flashbacks aren't really in chronological order. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to deal with that.

This picture is from the day that I officially received custody of my boy. It was November 4. I had packed the diaper bag that morning for it's first official use. We had finished at court and received a favorable outcome. Then, we had to stop at the store and buy cakes for the caretakers at the baby home.

When we finally arrived at the baby home, we were ushered into the Director's office. I was on pins and needles waiting for them to bring me my son. He finally arrived wearing some kind of pink snowsuit and crying his eyes out. Poor little guy must have sensed that his life was about to take a turn and that must have been very scary for him.

I began stripping him. See, you have to bring everything with you for your baby to leave the baby home. I had a complete outfit for him to change into. As I changed his clothes, I remember whispering in his ear that he never had to wear pink again, unless he wanted to. (Turns out that he does like wearing pink.)

While I was changing him, he did begin to calm down. Not sure how that happened since I was a nervous wreck. I wanted to get him and get out as quickly as possible in case anyone changed their mind.

While we (me and the other family that I traveled with) were getting the kids ready, the Director came in and gave a little speech. At this point, I have no recollection of what he said. All I know is that he gave each child an envelope with pumpkin seeds in it. I'm not even sure what the relevance of the pumpkin seeds were. But you can believe that I still have that envelope tucked away with all of my important keepsakes from that trip.

To this day, I still remember what Henry smelled like when I would visit him at the Baby Home. Later, I would learn that smell was linked to him sweating because of the many layers of clothes they place on the children. It still surfaces once in a while when he is snuggled in and a little warm in his bed at night.

It's hard to believe that little, anxious boy is the same as my grown up boy who is going to graduate from kindergarten in a few short weeks!