Today Bert is 12...

Today is a special day for Bert. He is 12. I asked him this morning if 12 felt different than 11. He said not really...so I said, why not just stay 11 than? He said it would be a problem when he wants to drive. I didn't need to hear that yet!
Bert came to us, first in a dream. A dream for adding a little girl to our family of 3...to even up the 2 boys against 1 girl ratio that we had...and we went on adoption websites and we each went on photolistings and we printed out a hopeful...and we had both printed out the same little boy. It was early Dec 1999. Albert was chubby cheeked and 2 years old. It takes a lot of paper work for international adoptions. We completed it in pretty good time by June or so...and then we waited...while they closed down all Russian adoptions and then opened them up region by region..until finally, in June of 2001, as our time was running out for all of our papers and we had decided that our hearts could not take it any more, we were cleared for travel. Albert came home with us that June, and has been a part of our family ever since. So today we celebrate his birthday...the day another mom kissed his little cheek..and we think of her on days like this...when you wonder if she wonders, and you wish she knew that he was doing OK...