"Pregnancy" Meme

I hope my friend Michelle won't mind me using her meme and altering it just a bit! I don't usually do these things but thought it would be kind of funny to see how I could apply it to our circumstance. I was feeling so frustrated with yet more possible adoption delays and yet more paperwork including redoing our fingerprints AGAIN, that I need to be a bit goofy to get out of my Nasty Rat Girl attitude! This is supposed to be about your first born and what you remember, so here goes:


1. WAS YOUR FIRST "PREGNANCY" PLANNED? Yes, and until this last one I never thought you could even HAVE an unplanned adoption!!

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes, for 13 years.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? "Kazakhstan? Really??? Where's that?"

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Nope, never has been and never would be. Of course, it helps to get pregnant first before worrying about an abortion, and that has never happened!

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 33

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE "PREGNANT"? Via videos of three infant boys, Matthew was the "oldest" at 7 months old and had his head shaved completely bald!

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? I can't recall, I think it was people at the restaurant counter...Dominick and I both knew at the same time as we watched the videos together.

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Ummmm...no real way to hide it as they held Matthew up to the camera stark naked! But prior to receiving the videos we were asked if we had a preference for a kind of child and we said "Send us videos of the kids most likely to not be adopted" and 3 Kazakh boys were presented to us, so we knew we were having a boy!!

9. DUE DATE? May 20, 2000

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Nope! See? There really ARE pluses to adopting!

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? What I still crave, oodles and oodles of Diet Coke. I am a fiend!

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Everyone who asked (and still do) if we really know what we are doing and how screwed up those orphanage kids are...oh yea, and those who ask "How much did he cost???"

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No way! I LOVE boys and even told my mom years before I ever got married that if I had a choice I would have all boys. That was before I knew I would HAVE a choice! hahaha! But I am now thrilled about the possibility of mommying two special girls!!

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? Oh Lordy, don't ask that...one of the downsides of adoption is you can't really justify your "Baby Weight" and the stress makes you eat like a starving pregnant lioness!!

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Not really what you would call a real shower, I didn't really know anyone in town and only had 2 friends there.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? Adoption is one big complication, isn't it??

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Aktobe, Kazakhstan in a blue-green isolation room where Matthew was being kept secluded from all the other babies due to illness...he was in a tattered, stained terry cloth shirt and nothing else, not even a diaper. And the scent of that moment will never leave me nor the feel of him nestling against my neck in the first few moments. We both knew we were "home" I think. He still nestles that way with me, including this evening. I love it.

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 17 days, that's what it took from door to door. How's THAT for labor???

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Lufthansa!! :-)

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Dominick and Galina, our coordinator.

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Nothing unnatural about adoption at all. Try it and you'll learn that one quickly!

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? The pain is indescribable, as I am experiencing it again during our 4th and 5th "pregnancies". Physical pain isn't the only kind, and trust me, this hurts just as bad.

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 14 pounds at 11 months old

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? His birth mother gave birth in the hospital on June 12th, 1999 where she abandoned him by skipping out and leaving him behind, and he was taken to the orphanage a few days later. He was actually born into my arms when we left the orphanage on Mother's Day 2000.

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Anes Serikovich Kubenov became Matthew Ryan LaJoy or as was on his Kazakhstani passport, Metyu Ruyan Lajoy

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? He is 9 years old, with the wisdom sometimes of a 40 year old, and the unadulterated joy of a 5 year old.

OK, I am not good at "tagging" people, so anyone who reads this can consider themselves tagged!!