Mother(ish) day

Today was good - not great (that would mean I had my boy and I REALLY felt like a mom) but it was good.  I spent the better part of the day with my Mom and my sister over brunch and coffee with my Aunt later.  I was spoiled - it just sort of happened - not entirely associated with Mothers day - just a happy coincidence.  My one 7 year old niece made me a picture for my fridge that said, "I love you Corbin" with her name signed at the top.  My mom brought me a BIG bag full of things she's been collecting including a sweat suit from the Olympics for Corbin - she had to be quick and nimble to grab one of them when she saw it since they are out of production after the games ended.  This will truly be a keepsake for him.  I talked to her yesterday as she shopped and she had found a great deal on a 2 piece suit and Lord knows I don't turn down a good deal.  She picked it up and had to guess at the size.  Well I guess there must be enough pictures for her to have gotten it darn close - the other size would have been HUGE and this one will be perfect and likely the best color for him so Baba has him all set up :)  Mom had also been out to visit my Grandma and had spent some time with some of her extended family.  She had told them that I was adopting and one of her cousins who is a retired teacher offered an absolutely AMAZING hand made quilt for her to bring for Corbin.  I have never seen anytihing like it.  It's shaped like a lady bug - it's backed in polar fleece and fronted in quilted black and red with wings and spots and eyes and fuzzy seams... my description does it no justice at all but suffice to say I LOVE it!!!  Another awesome thing that was in the bag is a great "baby book for adoptive families" titled My family, My journey - I love it and will have a great time filling it out for Corbin.  I have so many thank you calls to make and notes to write... I'm going to get cramps :)  And finally, one of the sweetest things was one of the quietest things today.  My 15 year old niece who started working at McDonalds about 3 months ago to start saving for cell phones, and cars and make up and skinny jeans slid some folded bills across the table and said quietly in her nonchalant 15 year old this is no big deal sort of tone, "this is for Corbins orphanage".  I looked down at the bills and with big eyes said, "from who?" she said, "Me".... I said (yes I was feeling particularly stunned) "YOU?"  and she smugly answered, "NO, the me behind me".  and that was that.  My little niece gave me $45 of her hard earned money.  My family has given me so much already that every little thing just sort of blows me further away.  From flights for Corbin to come home from my Mom, to refrigerator drawings and small gifts from the twins, to car seats and collections at my sisters work for the orphanage, to my oldest niece giving so much of her make up money for something she thinks is important.  Oh yeah, and I creeped on her FaceBook page where she was answering some random list of questions and one was, "what are you most looking forward to this summer?" Answer, "My Aunt bringing her son Corbin home and going to the lake" (p.s. she goes to the lake with me). 
Really, it was a great Mother(ish) day for me... in lieu of the better option, I'll certainly take it!  I need $90 more to break the $4000 mark in donations - I'm pretty sure I'll get there - and if I don't - I'm still COMPLETELY blown away.  When I first sent out the email, I said I'd be happy with $500... now... this is incredible.  Today was Victory day in Russia and it's celebrated by a 3 day weekend. Happy Mother's Day, Happy Victory day too... in adoption, we take the small victories and hold tight.  When those small victories are all stitched together, they become a quilt of memories that is the landscape of our path.  Today's color was a nice fuzzy Red... I'll take that.