We've had a birthday!!

February 2nd 2008.  That is the day that our precious baby boy was born.  Each year, the day that we celebrate his birthday.  On every one of the kid's birthdays there is the inevitable telling of the birth story.  Each of the kids has their special claim to fame - Kasey gets the wild ride to the hospital while Mom banged on the window, and dad losing his glasses lens in the nighttime grass and having to crawl around to find them before we even got in the car.  DJ gets the almost-C section and the special blessing that seemed to speed up labor so that he speedily made his entrance before his heartbeat dropped any further.  Karly was the tiny baby whose entrance was bumped up by a few weeks as she was not getting adequate nourishment - faulty umbilical cord.  Preston forced his poor mother to be on bed rest for 2 weeks, (I know, just terrible...) because he was supposedly not thriving like his sister, but after coming two weeks early he turned out to be a burly (and mightily displeased young lad), but he seemed to get over it eventually.  Now we have another birth story, but this one is very different.  We don't know this story, and more than likely never will, at least not in this life.  I like to think that he was anticipated with great joy, and that for those few weeks that he was with his first family, that he was also welcomed with love, though also, with sorrow.  My heart cracks whenever I think of his birth mother and the process that led to her realization that her baby could only get the necessary medical care he needed if she gave him up.  In China there is no medical safety net, and Mason's feet and legs needed interventions that were out of reach for any but the wealthiest of people to undertake. I hope she was able to store up some memories and impressions for those precious few days that she had this beautiful infant.  I also hope someday that I can thank her - and tell her that - oh my goodness - he has been loved.  I want them to know that I think of their sacrifice every single day, and am grateful for the privilege I have had to welcome their little bundle.  The bundle that was placed in the safest of spots - a police station - where he would be immediately found and cared for.  The doctor that checked him over decided he looked like a wise young man, and named him Wen Sai, apparently a famous Chinese scientist.  Our birth story is a little longer for this child.  Our insistent and subtle tugs that there was a member of the family missing, and that member of the family was, inexplicably, in China.  Our journey through red tape, and interviews, and at the end of it all, a plane ride, and later a bus ride through a smoggy city where we would finally, at long last, get to meet our son.  It's a great story.  It didn't happen on his birthday, but it's our story nonetheless.  My heart will always ache a little every February 2nd, for my son, that he doesn't know any of the circumstances around his birth, no funny stories or anecdotes about a wild ride to the hospital or anything at all really.  I will always think of those parents, who are not celebrating that day like we do, with presents, and cake and games and lots of love, and for the story that is all theirs, that we don't share with them. For now, our story will have to do - I think it will do.