Every year, there are two birthdays that fall on or near Mother’s Day. Inevitably, this makes for a rather celebratory weekend! I learned something new this year that I had not realized before – in Mexico, Mother’s Day is always on May 10th. So I’ve filed that away for future reference!
Mother’s Day can be a complicated thing for many people. There are all kinds of reasons for this, and I think in recent years there has been much more openness to acknowledging that. One of those reasons is part of the adoption journey. Relationships between kids and both their adoptive and biological moms can be fraught. It takes a lot of effort to maintain open communication in order to minimize any resentments that might develop. For us, adoption has meant widening our definition of family. We have done everything we can to open our arms to include the moms, dads, siblings, and extended families of our kids. I am so grateful to be able to be a co-parent with and have good relationships with all of them. The way we do it doesn’t work for every family, but we know how blessed we are to make it work for ours.
On this particular day, I took it upon myself to bring dinner down to Grandma’s place. Most often when we trek over there on a Sunday to pick up kids that have been there for the weekend, we just order up some Little Caesars, or Grandma does some cooking (especially if Natalie is there to help). But of course I wanted to take that burden off her for the day, so I started planning and scheming a menu that just kept growing and becoming more elaborate (and honestly, yes, honey, I did buy too much food). BUT it was so much fun to put it all together, so I’m not sorry. We had veggies, dips, and shrimp cocktail for hors d’ouvres; a huge Caesar Salad that Ellie made while the main course was baking; a fruit salad, and an Italian tortellini salad; garlic bread that was SATURATED with the best garlic butter mixed by the skillful hands of Natalie and lavishly spread by Ana and Natalie; Chicken Penne Alfredo for the main course; strawberry lemonade punch for beverage; and since Efrain specifically/non-specifically requested “Not Vanilla” cake, there were both a Tuxedo Chocolate Mousse Cake and a Strawberries and Cream Bar Cake.
Ana had also brought along one of her nephews, who happens to be the same age as Ruben – just two weeks apart! They had been introduced by phone and then had played some video games together online, so meeting in person they fell right into brotherly-fun and had a blast together.
Pics of our joy-filled day – I did not take all of them, so I was pleasantly surprised when I popped the card in and got to view them all today! Enjoy!
And since Efrain wasn’t feeling well I didn’t get a pic on his birthday, so here’s a throwback to Easter Sunday, when he was in fine fettle indeed!
