Into the Wild-ish & Adoption Dreams

Well, the third time is a charm, at least for zoo campouts, that is. This weekend we went to our 3rd "Zoofari" which is a Tulsa zoo event for its members where we get to pitch a tent and spend the night at the zoo. The first time we went it was horribly hot, the next time there were severe storms, but this time was perfect. It did get a little chilly (in the 50's overnight) but it was so nice throughout the evening. We were able to ride the train and the carousel, make smores, and explore the zoo by flashlight. They had stations set up with the docents where we were able to meet and learn about a snake. Brooks also colored a giraffe mask to wear.

It was also really neat to be able to see the animals first thing in the morning. The cheetas are usually very elusive, but they were content to chill out and have their breakfast right out in the open. Even the zebras were unusually lively as they galloped around their enclosure pausing to stare at the people as if they were wondering what we were doing there so early. The lions are apparently very early risers as I began to hear them roaring at about 3 am! Maybe their new cubs were getting up in the middle of the night for attention! Brooks got some time on the payground before we had to break camp and get out before the Saturday crowds showed up. Needless to say, a zoo campout puts us on track to spend the rest of the weekend being lazy and enjoying some football.

* A complete aside: I took a break from publishing this post to go do our nighttime routine with Brooks. Although, I, like many moms, spend a good deal of time convinced that I am really botching this whole Mommy thing since I can't gather the energy (okay, the interest) to spend as much time playing Clone Trooper or Jedi Knight as Brooks would like. Or, because I realize that he didn't have a proper vegetable all weekend unless you count pizza sauce. Then, he saves me by telling me as I leave his room, "You love me too much!" Not possible, but how sweet to hear!

On the adoption front, we really aren't expecting news of any kind right now. We're 1 month into the 2-6 month wait for approval. We are now starting to focus on learning what we will be able to do to help our son adjust and bond when we come home. Every child and every family have different experiences, but what we do know is that he will need a lot of time and patience as we recreate that infant bonding experience with him. He will need to test and have proven to him again and again that we will be there to meet his needs (sounds familiar from Brooks's infant days!). He will need to know that we aren't leaving him; that this family is forever. I predict that it will seem odd at first to us and to those watching us that he has to be "babied" so much, but the holding, swaddling, etc that we didn't have with him as an infant will need to be recreated when he comes home.

As most of us in this adoption journey do, I always read other families' blogs to glean from their experiences and insight. I always wondered how so many people seemed to have dreams related to their adoptions--I'm just not the "got" a message in a dream" type. I still don't claim to be getting any messages, but I've now spent 2 nights having dreams about the adoption. In one, my "wishful thinking" dream, I received a middle-of-the-night phone call from Rwanda in which a man named Fernando (don't know where that came from!) informed me that we'd be recieving our approval letter the next day via email. I agrued with him that we hadn't been waiting long enough to which he just replied "congratulations!" and hung up. Then, last night, I dreamed that I received another call, this time from a young woman named June, who said she was a caregiver at the orphanage and she was playing right next to our son. I asked her how this could be since I didn't know our referral yet and she said they had read our file and just knew that this little boy was right for us. She said he was 27 months old and would I like to talk to him? I told her I didn't want to get his hopes up in case the official referral didn't come through. This dream was complete with clear images of June sitting in a room with another caregiver while a little boy played at her feet. So, now I am one of those whose waking and sleeping moments are consumed with thoughts of our son. Any dream interpreters out there?