Up Persicope

Three days ago we had our adoption party for family.
It was very special.
Our reservation was for a restaurant that actually rotates slowly on the top of a very tall building downtown on the edge of a river valley.
We arrived at 6:30pm, the six of us and Birth Grandma (Monkey and Buddy's maternal birth grandmother), then former foster parents with foster sister and then Aunt H and Uncle K (Cabana Boy's brother and his wife) and finally Uncle M and Aunt S with their two year old - fifteen people in total!

The staff were wonderful, they went to an extra effort to make a table that we could all sit at, which was a big deal - and our waitress was marvelous, warm and attentive.
The food was delicious, the view of the city, slowing changing as the restaurant turned, clear weather, day slowly melting into sunset....
it sounds a little soppy but it was truly just right.

The kids all did great, none of them, including the two year old, seemed to get overwhelmed or out of hand in anyway and we were there for almost 3 hours.

Cabana Boy and I had stopped at a boutique chocolatier to get tiny individual boxes of chocolates for each of our guests and slightly bigger ones for Sunny, Bunny, Buddy and Monkey. We handed those out early and then presented each of the four of them with these beautiful wooden keepsake boxes that one of my friends and her husband had made especially for this occasion.

(Very much like this one.)

It is hard to describe how beautiful they are. Each is made from a different wood, cherry, pecan, butternut and mahogany, handmade and polished, about the size of a large jewelry box.
I was a little worried that the kids might think they were a weird present or something but each of the really seemed to love their box, so we were so pleased.

Uncle K and Aunt H presented us with a gift certificate for a tree! And they will come and help us plant it in our yard! The kids are thrilled and we are thinking of an apple tree for in front of the house this fall, after the landscaping is done - we have to take out a nearly dead birch, so this is perfect.

(and yes, for those of you who remember, this is the same couple who gave us a rather poor reference for our adoption paperwork and were not that supportive at first - I am so glad that I chose not to confront them about it then or ever)


I don't know if I can capture just how much joy there was that night.
Everyone thought it was a magical time and everyone talked about how wonderful it was.
Just what we wanted for our four kids, something lovely and special that they will always think of as fantastic.

I am so damn lucky that it takes my breath away.