Sig is on his first train ride today. The conductor joked with me about placing us next to a rude passenger, so that the other passenger would have to deal with a screaming baby from Seattle to Portland. I apologized to him, letting the conductor know that Sig does not generally cry and is actually quite boring. I get distracted from the view outside the window by the view in the seat next to me, a precious little boy with a little conductor's cap sleeping through what in a couple of years will be a very exciting event to him, riding the rails. We are on our way to visit grandparents Dave and Joan, or Farfar and GmaJ, as we call them. Sig spent last evening with his adopted grandparents, Bob and Marilee Erickson, both cooing and spitting up. We are beginning to prepare for his first flight next week to Chicago, and I am still taken aback when people refer to hosting "our family." We have been just A & M for so long, yet we feel complete now with our first addition, and others seem to recognize that as well. What a gift to be part of a family 'unit.'
I have heard it said that friends are the family you choose for yourselves, but I don't believe that. God, not us, has placed very significant people in our lives to fill special roles of aunt and uncle to Sig, and brothers and sisters in Christ to Alex and I. Sig is blessed with the following adopted relatives, who have already invested many hours of support, companionship and prayer for Alex and I these last couple of months:
Auntie Katie (she knit the bear hat)
Katie was placed in my life at a time when I needed a friend most. She is the one who has helped purchase almost all of Sig's wardrobe, the one who attends breast feeding classes with me and the friend who I can save diaper changes for when I know she is coming over. Her unabashed love for my baby is a wonderful gift, as it frees me to share my joy without holding back, because she is truly the friend who rejoices with me when I rejoice. She is the friend who I can FaceTime with while I nurse, and the aunt who requests to get the nanny text updates along with Alex and I.
Uncle TyTy (purchased the newsboy cap for his roommate upon moving in)
Tyler Krumland is the reason Alex and I are together. We have known one another for almost ten years, and now have the blessing of sharing our home with him as he transitions to Seattle. He is eagerly learning diaper changes and all of the nuances of Sig's day-to-day schedule. He is the type of uncle who pulls a stool up next to the changing table to read to Sig while he fusses, buys him adorable hats in preparation for fall, and puts up with his screaming during workouts together with Alex in the garage.
Uncle Sean and Aunt Merri (Sig is wearing Sean's Boston hat)
What fun it is to think that Sean's old room while he interned at Boing one short year ago is now Sig's nursery. It took one glass of wine and one luenga taco to instantly bond with Merri and Sean, respectively. They are the friends for whom our hearts' ache when we have to go longer than a week without seeing one another. They are the friends who you 'do life' with. No plans, just life. Car shopping, errands, laundry, cooking and being. These are the things of our friendship, and I can't imagine anything more beautiful.
These are some of the people who love Sig so tremendously that I fall asleep trying to figure out how to spread it out to others who desperately need that type of love. As he sleeps next to me, unaware of the anxious, brimming-with-love grandma who waits for him on the other end, I repeat to him once again my one wish for him since he was born,
"I hope you grow up to love others and the world as much as you have been loved."
It truly does take a village, and I sure am happy with the population of ours!
