This One's For Their Dad

The day the clinic called and casually told me that I wasn't pregnant, but "no worries", we could try IVF again, I lay on the couch and accepted I'd never give birth to a child. Many women bravely keep trying cycle after cycle, but I knew I couldn't endure more blood tests and exams and procedures and daily shots, not to mention the emotional toll of another negative result.

Still, the aching desire to have a child remained. Adoption seemed the only option, but Bob and I had never discussed it. I was scared. How would he react? Would having a biological child make him more or less open to adoption? Would he be willing to take a journey halfway around the world?

I needn't have worried.

He accepted the idea of finding our son in Kazakhstan with ease. I don't think it ever crossed his mind that he would not or could not love a baby that didn't share our genes. And when Cearra pushed back, despising the idea of a new child in the family, Bob calmly stood his ground, assured that she would come around and that she would love her brother (and of course equally knowing that nothing would ever diminish his love for his princess).

So today, this is what I thank him for:

Opening his heart to a baby that we didn't yet know. Enduring the good and the bad, the ups and the downs of our journey. Trusting in the bond between him and his first born. And of course, and most of all, loving both his children - supporting them, laughing with them, encouraging them, being proud of them. Thank you Bob for being a great, great dad.