Parenthood

Being a writer, I find myself incredibly passionate about people, feelings and experiences. Life just seems to be a bit heightened on a daily basis for myself and my husband who also writes. I suppose having to jump into someone's shoes and feel how they feel, cry, laugh, react and so much more is part of the role. When it comes to the show Parenthood, which has been on for awhile, I cannot say enough about how much I can relate to the characters and real life drama that is portrayed.

Needless to say, I choose to watch Parenthood during dinner and more often than not, end up with indigestion lol.

A few years ago my husband Michael and I were resolved to the fact we had been trying for 8 years to get pregnant. 8 years is a very a long time. We rode the emotional roller coaster of whether we were just meant to be one of those couples with decent salaries, traveling the world and having dogs as children. Nothing against this by the way, it was a fun start. For some it works, for others like us we began to see our friends and family with children enjoying what life had brought them, the experiences, the ups and downs and as much as we loved the two of us, video games, 500 dvd's or so, it became a bit overdone. Yes, plenty of freedom and it is fun, for awhile.

Michael began to want more in our lives and I followed suit. We confronted fertility by going through all of the testing and fun visits. We never did go through IVF as I suppose on one of our numerous trips, we decided not to invest in something that may not work and then we saw a family who adopted and it was as if a light bulb went on. That was it, we knew, this was for us and we could travel and bring a child into our life who needed us as well as us needing and wanting a child.

We never realized just how involved the paper work, the journey was going to be but we did know it would be like climbing a mountain, a rocky, crumbly steep climb.

Our house is now rumbling with an almost three year old flying through the house, more often in a Buzz costume shouting, "To infinity and beyond, I come in peace" as his arms are stretched out flying like a plane.

I think how much our lives have changed and even more how much my sons life has changed. His personality came into fruition from a quiet thinker to an outgoing child filled with excitement, kindness and affection.

We are heading into our second adoption and lucky enough to be able to go back to the same city to bring home a sister for Alexei and a daughter for us. I look forward to meeting her and wonder how her personality will be.

Some ask is this your last one? I say, yes, but not by choice. For every child out there I can give a life long home to is a great gift for us, for our family and for them.

If you would have asked me whether I was going to have children 10 years ago. I may have said, "probably not".

I am entirely too happy to follow in the footsteps of characters like those in Parenthood where we all can relate or will come across a similar experience.

Life is short and to be able to share our moments with each other and our children is awesome.