Baby Shower Guest Blogger: Corey

Hi All, O.k., so over the past few months many people have asked us if we're having a Baby Shower and/or where we're registered. Being the oh-so-traditional girl that I am (not! ...but...hey... some traditions do have legitimacy to them), I've answered those questions by saying that we're not having a Shower and we don't have a Registry. My logic was that we had FOUR (4!) amazing Baby Showers when we were waiting for Kyle and Owen and tradition is to not have showers for 2nd babies, 3rd babies, etc. When I'd say this most people would respond the same way: "But this is different!!! You've never been pregnant before!!!" Well, it is true, this is different, and I haven't been pregnant before (for those of you who don't know-- we never even tried to get pregnant before, we just went straight for adoption with K & O), and, like many people have pointed out, we've definitely never had a newborn baby before!!! (eeeks!), but still, I was feeling a bit funny about the idea of a Baby Shower for Baby Sister... until I talked it over with our dear friend Corey. Being an adoptive and bio mom herself, she was somehow able to put me at ease about it all. She also insisted that she was going to throw a Shower for us! And then she put us to task to set up a Baby Registry (so Braydon and I registered at Babies R Us for all the newborn/infant things that we need). Corey's non-traditional Baby Shower idea is beautifully perfect for us and makes us feel truly showered with love. She really wants to get the blogosphere involved -- so, folks, here's a Guest Blogger post from our wonderful friend Corey!

Dear Readers,

A few years ago, I was hanging around an online group for parents involved in Haitian adoption when I heard a woman mention that she lived in our town. We had just brought our first Haitian child home, and we didn’t know anyone (in real life) that had adopted from Haiti. We made email contact right away, and quickly invited Heather and Braydon to visit us. I don’t remember much about that first visit except thinking that Haiti was going to rock their world (as it does nearly everyone’s) and that I hoped they knew what they were doing, adopting twin boys as their first children.

I never anticipated that my family would come to love theirs so thoroughly. When your family looks different than nearly everyone else’s, there is deep comfort in being with other families that “match,” that have similar composition, experiences and interests. As adults, we have spent hours talking about poverty, malnutrition, post-traumatic stress, birthparents, racism, orphanages, etc, etc, etc. We get together almost monthly, often planning months in advance because those “dates” are a priority for us all. Our children are the best of friends. Our kids look forward to playing with Kyle and Owen so much that we usually don’t tell them they’ll see the boys until we’re driving to their house. Otherwise we hear “when are we going to Kyle & Owen’s house” about 7 million times per day.

I love Heather and Braydon for a million reasons. For their generosity. Their love of others. Their intellect. Their collective sense of humor. For caring about social issues. For their love of their children. For always having time for their friends. For their devotion to their work, and for the crazy juggling act they do every day to balance work and family. For good recipes and good beer. For introducing my kids to step dancers. For cleaning my kitchen when it was the kindest thing anyone could do for me. On and on and on. They are good people.

And now they’re growing their family, this time through pregnancy, and no one could be happier for them than we are. This child, this precious baby girl, is so blessed to be coming in to this family, and such a blessing to everyone around her, as well. I can’t wait to see her. I can’t wait to watch her grow. I can’t wait to know the person she will be.

This is getting long, but I want to acknowledge that I know that as much as my family loves the Johnson-McCormick family, that we are only one of MANY that feel this way about them. And so, because we know that other people will want to shower them with love and affection in celebration of Baby Girl’s arrival, I want to invite you to a Virtual Baby Shower in their honor. Please join us at http://babyshower4hbj.blogspot.com/

With love,
Corey