Big Brother

Please scroll down and check out my sisters amazing handy work pictured in my previous posts...

So I wanted to dedicate this blog post to someone who I feel like can easily be forgotten about in this whole process. I mean I know how I have dealt with it all, and I know how Aaron has dealt with...never mind I am a little cloudy on that guy...I will post about him later, maybe in a few years when he shares what his emotions were like during this time (that's okay). I want to post about someone who is ultimately going to have a huge role in our new babies life. That is the big brother! Ha I am tearing up already. It is because I am thinking back on how Wesley has handled all of this. I am also thinking about how Wesley will be lucky to be a big brother to our second son but also how lucky our second son will be to have a brother like Wesley!

When Aaron and I first started this adoption there was a lot of doubts I had in my mind. I just couldn't picture it being real. All I could see was paper work and money...Sorry it sounds materialistic but the journey we were about to imbark on didn't make sense AT ALL. We just knew God had said go...Well there was one day that I was holding our contracts in my hands and thinking 'we will never have the $9,000 to move on to the next phase.' I was really beginning to question what we were doing and why we were doing it. I was sitting on the couch crying and feeling overwhelmed. I was on the phone with someone complaining that I just needed God to write on my wall and tell me that we were doing what he asked. As I am saying this Wesley comes walking up to me with the AGCI folder (the one with the picture of a baby on it). We had it sitting on the kitchen table. Anyway he comes walking up to me holding this folder and he said "bring baby home." I kid you not. I seriously about fell over as if God had spoke to me himself.

Another time we were at the grocery store and Wesley was hanging out by one of those end aisle entisers. Ughhh the ones they set up at the end of almost every aisle to try and get your child completely focused on this random toy they in no way really want but because they have been staring at aisle after aisle of food when you get to these end aisle entisers they go nuts. Anyways he was very focused and he would pull a package off the shelf and look at it, flip it over to the back "read" it then flip it over to the front again say no and put it back, then he would get another one down and start the whole process over again. WELL...I was getting impatient and wanted him to come get back into the cart. I finallly said Wesley now! He looked up at me as if I had just morphed down from Mars and said "Mom I am trying to find a toy for brother (this was before we knew he was getting a brother). My heart totally melted. I have to tell you that the toy he ended up deciding on after much deliberation was one with 3 African animals. I was amazed!

After Aaron and I got off the phone with Christy (after finding out about our son) Aaron and I just stared at each other in complete shock. Both of us with these goofy looks on our face. We then Cheered QUITE loudly and I ran and jumped in his arms and gave him a HUGE hug. After the fog began to lift we looked down to see this sweet little boy morphe suddenly into a big brother. He was still strapped into his booster chair, and was clapping and throwing his fists in the air. Smiling, cheering and giggling. I can't describe to you how beautiful it was. Mainly because I knew he had no idea what had just happened but also because he knew based on our reaction that there was a huge reason to celebrate and he was going to be in on it! Well we picked him up and jumped up and down the three of us, celebrating our soon to be family of four.

When we were done celebrating we put Wesley down and started calling relatives. He ran around the house super excited. He kept running over to the window and then he would run around the house and then run over to the window. When I asked what he was doing he said, "checking if brother is here." I told him about how we would have to wait until it got really cold outside, we would have Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then brother would be here. Wesley got very sad his eyes welled up with tears and his little lip came out and he said he didn't want to wait anymore for brother. It was then that I realized how for an adult this has been hard but it has also been hard for my precious little 3 year old. Now he does have the advantage of being able to be distracted but he has waited for 1/3 of his life to have brother here. I had thought when he was so excited it was because he found out he was getting a brother not that he already knew about a brother and thought he was coming home.

"Wesley you have waited a long time and I am so proud of you. You are going to be the best big brother and Daddy and I have no doubt that you love baby brother already. You have been so patient and trusting. You have never given up hope and you were the first one in our family to start praying for your younger sibling. Even though you are just three you are an amazing little person and WE love you."

Oh when Wesley was asked what we should name baby brother he insists that his name is chopper. If we refer to him by his real name Wesley is very quick to inform us that HIS baby brother's name is CHOPPER....

Well here the big brother is in all his glory! Did I say big brother? I meant Bat Brother...