26.27.28

These are very important numbers in our lives related to our adoption of Luci May.

May 28th was the day we received our referral. June 26th was the day we passed court and our (Luci May)Rediet became legally ours. And July 27th was Luci May Day (aka Gotcha Day) when we first held her in our arms.

Today is June 26th. I remember that day one year ago so clearly. I had finished my first conversation with my friend LeAnne after finding out she had breast cancer. As a result I was a jumbled mess of fear, sadness, confusion and belief as I drove to pick up Bill for a lunch date. And that's when the call came with wonderful news that the court date we'd been waiting for had already happened!

Now I was even more of a jumbled mess of fear, sadness, confusion, belief, and add to that elation. The more I live, the more I see that life is just like this. Rarely can the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the wins and the losses be completely separated. As we celebrate this day when our family legally became a family, we know it must have been a heart-wrenching one for Luci's biological Grandmother. We have pictures from that day. Luci is smiling, but her grandmother is clearly numb with grief.

Though it's a different kind of grief, I understand that numbness right now. I have lost my Mommy. Now Luci has lost two grandmothers. And once again, I am a jumbled mess of fear, sadness, confusion, belief and elation as I think about a life without Gunga, but joyfully celebrate our life with Lulu...