More than anything I was so incredibly excited! I was a little nervous about a few things:
1) Meeting everyone's family and friends, were they supportive? Would they ask hard questions? Would they think it was weird I was there?
2) My friend Sarah has been an emotional blanket for me, she was there for me throughout the pregnancy, was there for the birth and BB's visits. She would chime in with a great joke or funny story at the moments I was a feeling a little emotionally overwhelmed.
3) Is my family going to embarrass me? Who knew this would still be a concern at 31?!
Let me tell you, every worry or concern was ridiculous.
Day 1: (Monday Sept. 29)
BB and her mom met me in the airport, we went out for a
pizza lunch, we stopped by BB's dad's work and got to meet all his coworkers. I was introduced as "BB's birth mom" and was greeted so warmly with smiles and excitement she was almost walking. 
I got the official tour of Bismarck, it's very flat and lots of farm land but then has these beautiful bluffs over looking the river.
We headed back to the house, BB's mom is so creative! The house is so beautifully decorated and warm. They have a huge Apple tree in their backyard where BB picks an apple every day, she kicks it around like a soccer ball, and tries to eat it.
She tried beets for the first time, they were a hit. She likes to try to drink from your glass but when she tries, she dunks her whole face in it lol. She mostly babbles but can say words like mama, daaa, bath.
She still FREAKS out over puppies, even the ones at target on a sign lol she can spot them from blocks away. (As a fellow dog lover, this delights me to no end!)
She can pull herself up and stand and walk if you've got both her hands, sometimes she'll walk a little with one hand but then panic when she realizes the other hand isn't there. Still super smiley and independent and into everything, and only upset if you give her the wrong book off her shelf or she's hangry. Oh! And she points at everything wanting to know what it is and is satisfied with whatever the answer is.
A few thoughts:
- She has the BEST parents ever! Her mom makes her these amazing homemade toys, and they only watch 1 hour of TV each day, and it's educational Sesame Street.
- Sesame Street doesn't dumb things down. I don't remember "in-cognito" or "exceptional" or "frustrated" being a part of my vocabulary that early.
- Her parents make such a great team! They just naturally switch off for diaper changes, feeding, carrying and teaching moments. There is a lot of love there!
- BB's dad works across the street from the library which is perfect because he can join BB and her mom for story time at the library on his lunch break. Could it get any better than that?
- I loved seeing her room and the yard she would grow up playing in, their wonderful home. I had heard great things about it from the adoption agency, but it's better than they could have ever described.
I woke up early, got some reading done for class, played on the
floor with BB and we watched a Sesame Street episode. It was international
try a new food day according to the show.
BB's mom made amazing lemon poppy seed bread, blueberry bread and cinnamon rolls
with parfait for breakfast. (Strawberries were canned from her mom's farm!)
BB got to try a lil of the breads and yogurts. Apparently she can't have
strawberries or honey until after age 1. Nobody knows why about the
strawberries but I guess with honey her tummy isn't developed enough to digest
it until later in life.. Interesting!
We cleaned up and BB and I walked all
over the house pointing at things and me telling her the name. We got in the
car and drove for about an hour and a half to Dickinson where there was a
small town with a coffee shop called "The Brew" which used to be a
church. The pews are still part of the seating!
We drove another hour to Teddy
Roosevelt National Park and checked out the badlands... Gorgeous!! BB is a total social butterfly, she loves watching people and being around people. There is no such thing as stranger danger for her. She immediately wanted to held by a lady at the park who said it would make her grandson jealous.
We stopped
for lunch at a fun crazy bar/restaurant covered in mounted deer heads, a deer butt
and all the local rancher's branding signs burned into the wood.
We didn't exactly fit
in lol! We were not bikers and we were not wearing cowboy boots with Spurs, cowboy hats, plaid or jeans or have the typical weathered cowboy look. BB launched an entire container of peas and
carrots into the air and her face LIT UP as it landed in a pile in front of her
and she tried to take as much food in her little fists as possible, as normally
she's only allowed one piece of food at a time to make she chews it all lol.
We
went on 4 different hikes in the badlands. We just rotated carrying her as she
was not interested in wearing shoes lol. We saw about 100 prairie dogs, herds
of buffalo and two herds of wild horses!
We went into a little town called
Medora. It looks straight out of a western where they do dinner and a show.
The dinner they call "pitchfork fondue" you sit outside and grab a
tray for beans, bread, coleslaw and fruit then walk over and they dump a slab
of meat on your tray.
The meat was cooked by dipping the meat on the pitchfork into a big cauldron of oil.
BB tried out some BBQ chicken, garlic bread and some
beans. She does not like foods with weird textures.. Oatmeal, grits, cottage
cheese. She gets very dramatic like how dare we give her funny textured food
and coughs it up until it looks like she projectile vomited.
If you put fruit
in her yogurt that is not ok.. something creamy textured with something hard,
she spits the fruit out lol. We walked across from pitchfork fondue to
"Medora the Musical" It's a tradition most North Dakota families
attend once a year. They were so great!
BB made friends with EVERYONE! It
was current and some older country songs with some
Rock and roll. The state has a slight obsession with Teddy Roosevelt. I didn't realize the state had such an impact on him.
The beauty of this state made him want to preserve the
national parks. I can see why! During the musical, the cast re-enacted some of his battles and it was
incredible how they included the backdrop of the badlands into the show! The
show ended with fireworks and that scared the holy bejeezus out of BB.
After such a long day she was so exhausted that she couldn't sleep so we had to pull
over a few times on the way to her grandma's farm just to calm her down a bit.
They said they had never seen her cry that hard, poor girl it was a lot in one
day with scary fireworks and waking up in a dark car without a night light.
We got to the farm about 1am. BB's grandmother me the biggest bear hug ever! She is so kind and so sweet and she and BB have a
really special bond, which I think is just what she needs needed after
BB's grandfather recently passed away.
We went to bed shortly after. I was looking forward to waking up and exploring the farm the next day.
Thoughts:
1) Why does this work so well? A year ago with the phone interview, meeting in person and having BB's parents in the hospital with us when she was born laid the foundation for this. We became friends. We all commented on how we are all a little weird, and how our families are a little weird and that weird just works together! We genuinely miss each other's company. It would be awful if that friendship and foundation had not been established and we didn't enjoy spending time together.. especially in a car for 3 hours!
2) Jealousy.. there's none. Our roles don't need to be dissected or determined. They are her parents. I'm her birth mother. I am overwhelmed with joy when the things I wanted for BB are there. I couldn't be a stay at home mom, we'd be watching way too much tv, I wouldn't have had the creativity to make toys or the support from a partner. She has a HUGE wonderful family who adore her. I couldn't ask for more!
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