Happy Adoption Month

I snapped this photo with my iPhone tonight after dinner. This is classic Kyle and Owen. They are just hanging out, cracking each other up to no end, just about as happy as any two human beings on the planet could ever possibly be.

Sometimes they almost seem like they are literally overflowing with happiness. It is pretty infectious.

It has been a long couple of days (Kyle is just out of the woods, recovering from Strep Throat, and Braydon and I have been juggling sick-kid duty with our own work — work which is rapidly escalating this time of year). We had somehow managed to pull off a sit-down family dinner (miracle!). Braydon was cleaning up supper, I was giving Meera a bath, and these two clowns were sitting at the table together over after-dinner orange juice pops. I kept hearing them laughing hysterically, so I finally went to check out what was going on. There was nothing going on– just the two of them lost in their own little (apparently super funny) world, talking at a crazy-rapid pace, with their words/sentences/dialogue so truncated (finishing each other’s sentences as only they can), that nobody but them could possibly understand what on earth they were talking about, let alone laughing about.

I stopped for a second, as I took the picture, and was just astounded by the whole scene.

I remember them doing this when they were toddlers — sitting around, after dinner, eating ice cream cones (or something), and just cracking each other up hysterically.

And they do it now.

And I can’t help but just do an imaginative-fast-forward to seeing them doing this over after-dinner-drinks someday not-so-far-in-the-future.

I’ve been thinking about adoption a lot lately, because I always do, but I am reminded even more so of the joy and pain of adoption during November (National Adoption Awareness Month). And I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the twin connection too. Twins are something special. There is just nothing like it. And I’ve been reminded of that a lot lately in tiny little observations I make as I watch Kyle and Owen growing up. The honor and privilege of adopting twins is pretty much absurdly, over-the-top special. Adopting Kyle and Owen was the best thing I ever did with my life. Hands down. They have me on such a wild ride, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Man, oh man, do I ever love these boys. These boys are my heart and soul. They are loud, they are fast, they are in constant motion, they are a non-stop party, they fill up a room with their simple essence and huge personalities and big movements. They are exhausting in their antics and their pushing-of-buttons and we can never let our guard down even for a second. But for as much as they drain us, they fill us right up too — their happiness is contagious, their charm is disarming, their zest for living is incredibly impressive and admirable. I know I’m bias, but I really think they are something off-the-charts-interesting-unique-and-special. I am so ridiculously proud and honored to be their mom. And I just can’t believe our luck in getting to have these two as our sons.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. There is so much in adoption to be aware of — so much grief and so much challenge and so much trauma. And there is so much joy too. Despite all that Kyle and Owen have been through, and continue to live through, at the core they are pure joy. And that joy lights up my world each and every day. I am the lucky one.