Friday, November 14, 2008

In Honor of My Friend Cobb

4 years ago at an old adoption forum I stumbled upon a long and heart wrenching thread of a then stranger, now friend, going through a horribly difficult time of loss. Her words came back to haunt me because her story, in many ways, mirrored what our own family would go through a year or two later with Princess J.

Then just before Christmas she started a new thread annoucing that surprisingly her and her family would meet a beautiful, although very sick, little Princess. For over a year we celebrated along side Cobb and her husband the little one's triumphs and set backs. We celebrated as she grew strong enough to leave the hospital. Strong enough to grow, walk, talk and eventually even EAT.

If you can ever love a child you have never met, we all learned to love Cobb's daughter (well both in fact!).

Today, finally, Cobb finalized the adoption of two of her new daughters and I celebrate with my long lost friend!

Congratulations to ALL your family Cobb. I can't wait to see more pictures!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay, you just made me cry. I checked back just to see if you got my other comment and then this...

It was a very good day. We finalized baby C (now 3-year old big girl C, who never needs any help, EVER!) last year and Miss A has been talking about her turn ever since. She sat very quietly on my lap with her head on my shoulder, favorite fingers in her mouth (which we rarely see anymore) staring at the judge throughout the proceding. I was told as soon as he made his final pronouncement she turned around and flashed the biggest grin at our gathered family friends. Miss A's has PTSD and other anxiety issues as a result of her early medical experiences and upheaval in her life. Today meant something to her and you could see a deep physical relaxing of sorts. There will still be future bumps in the road, but for now, it is a very good day indeed.

As for T and I... Just a huge sigh of relief. No more dealing with her originating state, no more reports, no more foster care frustrations...

A good day indeed. :)

~C

Unknown said...

C is THREE? Time flies ... absolutely FLIES.

Let Miss A know Aunty Jen says hi:) and congratulations. and the fingers in the mouth ... those were always the cutest little things!

Andy said...

COBB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just thinking of you yesterday and was going to send you an email to see how things were going! How funny is that!

Congratulations!!!!! I've got tears streaming down my cheeks as I read that you have made it to finalization!

Oh Happy Day!

Anonymous said...

Jen, A has callouses on her fingers from sucking them and across each callous is a ridge where she rests her two front teeth. She used to suck them constantly, but now only when she's falling asleep, she's too busy talking the rest of the time. :) Can you believe she's going to be five in a month? Talk about time flying!

Hi Andy!!!! I think of you all the time. First, because we still use the blanket H made. It's on the fourth baby and still as wonderful as the day it arrived. Second, because I always check out the pictures of L you send. I can't believe how grown up he's become.

Okay, so here's are latest (and FINAL, cause we are so done) kid count...

Bean (13) - Oh the joys of middle school girl drama!

Miss A (almost 5) - Who is still walking around mumbling her new last name. :p

C (3) - Big preschool girl who has ARRIVED I tell you (just ask her!)

Little A (2) - 4-6 week placement (same med. sit. as C) that became permanent yesterday. We entered into a legally binding open adoption agreement with her mom. Her case has been the most emotionally difficult case we've been involved in and the reason we "were done" doing foster care. Except...

Little baby J (10 mons) - C's bio sib, came along when I was 22 weeks pregnant. Her personality is similar to Miss A's and she's HEALTHY, which we really appreciated around here.

Little Man (6 mons) - The one we were told wasn't possible. Adored and doted on by all!

Needless to say life is busy, but I do hope to get a more thorough update out to the Aunties next week. In the meantime, thanks for lending me this space to share. I'm thinking I might need my own blog, lol.

Anonymous said...

Congrats Cobb!!!

We finalized with our girls a year ago today.

Anonymous said...

Woo Hoo! Oh, excellent news. Congratulations! I can't believe the girls are so big! Seems like just yesterday E was a baby...

:)))

Regina

Unknown said...

Ok!! WOW you have been busy!!!! PREGNANT? That many new babies??? WOW WOWOW WOWOWOWOWOW

You are excused on the no new pics for the last while!

Unknown said...

Congratulations, Cobb!!!! On everything.

It is so hard to believe how BIG the girls have gotten!

And yes yes yes yes yes yes to your own blog! Let us know the URL if you do it!!!!