Grace is snoozing away in Anne’s arms while our lunch (rice and dumplings) and dinner (roast chicken with pesto) cook away. This will be the first non-hospital food we’ve had in two days, though I recall us sneaking in a patty melt and milkshake from Izzy’s the night she was born. Really, this is all a blur of plastic bassinets, rotating nurses, and a tiny, tiny person with a mighty grip.
Grace Laural Rakunas was born at 6.24 in the evening on Boxing Day, 2009, and it was so fast. One minute, I’m holding our birth mom’s hand as Roy Silver, our friend, walked into the room and into his scrubs; the next, there’s this little girl slipping out like she was on a waterslide (which, in a way, she was). I cried, Anne cried, Grace cried, but only a little bit (Grace, that is. I bawled my eyes out and lost a contact lens, so I was literally half-blind as I cut the cord). After she was warmed up and rolled into the nursery, we got to hold her and feed her and I understood what my mom meant when she said this cord was just going to spring from your chest and wrap itself around the kid and never let go. It tugs whenever Grace cries or sleeps or makes one of those big baby sighs.
We got through the first night by swapping off shifts and learned a few things right away:
1) She loves eating
2) She’s not a fan of pooping
3) She sleeps best when we’re holding her
We are over the moon about all of these things. Even the poop, though I’ve now upped our weekly order with Dy-Dee Diapers.
I think the best part of all this has been the ridiculous outpouring of love from our family and friends. Every email, Tweet and Facebook update about her has melted the both of us, and it’s going to take a while to thank everyone with the individual notes you all deserve. I’m especially thankful for every one of you who’s shared that you were adopted (or are married to someone who’s adopted, or has parents or siblings or cousins who are adopted). Grace is in a club with some pretty awesome members, and I think it’s going to make for some very happy birthdays.
Our moms are coming Tuesday, and we’re going to start receiving other guests on Wednesday (I wish there were an app to make scheduling this all so much easier. Is there?). The first of the pictures are up on Flickr here, and there will probably be a ton more.
And now I have to wipe my eyes and blow my nose and inhale some food and do laundry while I can. Grace will be up soon, and I’ll be too busy staring at her while she feeds and burps and sighs to do anything else.
Welcome into the world, Grace. We love you so much.
