It had to be YOU!!!

There comes a time in most young romantic relationships when "the look" starts making an appearance. Granted that it is usually bi-directional in the form of googly eyes. This is the time when the two need to decide if they want to move into the future together or if they need to become part of one another's past.

That day came for us over a fabulous dinner at a swanky seafood joint sipping wine and eating melt in your mouth food art. Philip played his hand first talking about wanting at least 2 children. Now, it was my turn. I shared my feelings on adoption and that I was non-negotiable about it. Philip just blinked at me and said, "Awesome, So?" So our decision to complete our family by adoption was made embarrassingly early in our courtship and in the span of 3 minutes.

We sped through the next years together with every step focused on the goal of our future little ones. We needed a home in a good school system, Philip needed to survive law school, Amy needed...well an overhaul.

Finally we started on the paperwork. We went directly to an adoption agency that I had heard GREAT things about, http://www.villahope.org/ We were overwhelmed and didn't know where to start. They sat down with us and explained different countries adoption procedure (including the USA) and eventually we picked the People's Republic of China because the program had such a long history of stability and as much predictability as can exist in this process (which I'm here to tell you isn't much). I think we ran around doing RIDICULOUS amounts of paperwork for almost 2 years! Finally, in December of 2006 we finished that particular leg of paperwork (OY!!) and our dossier was sent to China. And now, we wait....and wait...and wait. As of today, the general guesstimate for wait time for those adopting a non-waiting child from China is about 2 years. This is subject to much emotion and debate in the adoptive community and if you are just dying to see how completely convoluted and heated this issue is, visit the Rumor Queen at http://www.chinaadopttalk.com/

Then, one of my favorite days came in March of 2007. I got an erroneous e-mail from our agency with a picture of a little waiting baby asking if we thought this might be the child for us. How did they know that it WAS? It WAS OUR baby! (These pictures are at about 5 months of age)

Dubious? You should be. After all, who can look at a picture of a sweet innocent child and not think, "Oh, YES! YES! I absolutely must pepper that child with kisses all over!" But here's the tricky part, any adoptive mother can tell you that the INSTANT you see your child's face, you KNOW. It can be a lone event, or out of a sea of wonderful children. I don't understand it either, but it is very real. Curiously as well, throughout the YEARS that we were working toward the goal of bringing our future child home, we did quite a lot of visualization, retail therapy, nursery planning, etc. Since we were adopting from China, we pretty much assumed that we would be bringing home a little girl. (This wasn't out of preference. We stated to having no gender preference in our paperwork). This was a probability issue. Mom and I hit emotional valleys when only some glorious retail therapy would work. We bought cute little onsies, sweet little stuffed lovees, and adorable pink books. One day, as mom and I were shopping together, she wanted to buy the sweetest ladybug luggage set. I surprised myself by INSISTING that "NOPE, could be a boy!" From that day on, I had little emotional tantrums about the issue and was completely unable to buy one more girly little thing. I stamped my foot at Grandmama and insisted, "I think it's going to be a boy!" I don't remember exactly the day that my head and heart shifted gears. Perhaps Grandmama does? I slid into that psychology over a period of weeks. I wonder what was happening with our little precious one then?

Ok, so here's another twisted point. If you have known Philip well, do you notice a freaky resemblance in appearance from Philip's babyhood? It is utterly preposterous that there is a remarkable likeness of this little China-born baby and my Norse husband, but....there it is! Some of it has to do with the fact that our son has oculo-cutaneous albinism. To learn more about that you can visit here http://waitingchild.org/albinism.html or here http://www.albinism.org/ or even here http://www.positiveexposure.org/home.html

So now we know who we have been waiting for all these years! It was so nice to see your picture! You are PERFECT!!! But we are hungry for MORE pictures!!! Villa Hope came through and acquired these pictures of Beck with his foster parents. At this time he is 11 months old and was born in the Sichuan province of China. He is from a beautiful mountainous region of China that relishes very spicy food. Philip and I had a rousing naming session (expecting to lock horns) and we settled the matter within 5 minutes once we came up with "Beck Elrik Petersen." (Philip tried to sneak a "Von" in there but got the VETO!! You're welcome, Beck.)

Of course you know that I studied these pictures all day...everyday at like 800% zoom so that I could see each little pixel of his precious face. All of the studying in the world could not have prepared me for this unique, silly, affectionate, pedextrous, musical, resilient, amazing person.