K and I are off on a plane. We are taking a twelve-day trip and visiting our spread-out family tomorrow. Hubby is off to Asia on a business trip, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to take a few airplane trips and visit loved ones. First we hang with my sisters and then my parents. Detroit, Minneapolis, New York. Here we come - Off we go!

Our family is big on traveling. K has already been on many planes the first two years of her life. She’s traveled to the East Coast, the West Coast, and to Europe. We’ve gone to Vegas. (not recommended with a baby, but it was a business trip. She does pretty good, and except for that one time she threw up on the passenger next to us, she’s been calm. So, tomorrow, we get up at 4:30 A.M. (ugh!), and catch the first flight out, heading East.

I feel very fortunate that my whole family embraced K completely. They have been in on my emotional roller coaster and the waiting game to adopt her. They have been there for me when we weren’t sure we would get to keep her, and they were there on adoption day. My family flew in from around the country to stand with us and give their support on that one big A day. And then later, that same day, my family was present to welcome her into the family. We had a big party and everyone wrote wishes and blessings down in a keepsake book for her. My family has wanted K and embraced her with open arms. We are truly one family.

Adoption was new to our family. There is one distant relative who is a recently reunited birth-mom, and another distant relative who acts as mom to a step-child, but we are the first to adopt. At the beginning, when I first broached the subject of adoption, I wasn’t sure how my family would react. I was hoping they would be supportive, but there was a little bit of a nagging scarey feeling deep inside. Would they really see our child as, well, ours? Or would there always be an unspoken word, ‘adopted’, when my family came around? I’m happy to report that nothing could be further from the reality. K is part of us, our family, part and parcel, for good and bad. Already she has inherited my sister’s curly hair, and people say she is starting to look like me, but best of all, she is loved. She is loved for who she is and not from where she came from.

Now, if I can just get Granny and Granddaddy to stop spoiling her.

Thanks family. See you tomorrow!