The aunts save the day!

Of course as soon as I saw the darkness of the less than open minded woman at the grocery store yesterday, God showed me the light of the blessing we have in family.

I was talking to my sister-in-law, Sara, this morning and she mentioned that she'd been catching up on my blog and had seen the entry from yesterday about my chance encounter. We have recently learned that our nephew on Steve's side of the family needs glasses (he's a toddler). His sister, who is five, also has glasses. She went on to tell me that our other sister-in-law, Jodi, had emailed her to say that their eye doctor suggested that her daughter be tested at age 2 as this might be a hereditary thing that would affect her as well. Sara's first thought was to ask Jodi if she'd told me so that we could have Kailin tested right away....and when I mentioned that to Jodi, she said that her gut instinct was to do the same thing. Ha!

That reminded me of a story from awhile ago. On my side of the family, we are congenitally missing two adult teeth on the bottom. It sounds harmless enough, but it's actually a real pain - it alters your bite and if you don't fill the holes, then it can really affect your teeth. My sister was talking about it with her dentist and said, "Gee... I hope my niece doesn't have this problem - it's such a pain!" and then she laughed and of course he asked why and she said, "well because my niece is adopted!" I later related this story to our family Dr. (who used to be my sister's doctor and who is also Kailin's doctor) and during the middle part she was giving me an odd look as if she didn't understand why Katie would have been laughing about it and I said..."because Kailin isn't genetically related...." and she laughed and said, "I just don't even think of her that way!"

It warms my heart to know that my children are loved and accepted as full members of our family and that the fact that they are adopted is never foremost in anyone's mind. THAT is far more important than any chance encounter could ever be. Not all adoptive families are as fortunate in that respect and I am thankful to God for giving us such an amazing support system. There will always be yahoos out there challenging the way our family is formed and challenging my kids to defend who they are - but knowing without question that those challenges won't come from those closest to us is worth more than words could ever say.

Also, I finally made the oatmeal raisin cookies I've been craving for weeks, and those will make any day look brighter!