Diary of a Soon-to-be Daddy

Since the beginning of our adoption journey, my beloved wife Mel has done virtually all the writing (and a great deal of the hands-on leg-work) for our adoption, leaving me to worry about the GoFundMe website (http://www.gofundme.com/euemo) and email blasts. She has done an excellent job of telling the world about our journey, our hopes and dreams, and our passion for this endeavour. However, we both thought it was about bloody time for me to step in and say a few words. So here goes!

Firstly, I want to apologize for the title of this blog perhaps being a little too “feminine.” A “diary”, many of you might think, is something in which you put down upcoming dinner dates, or is something to which little girls tell all their secrets, which boys they like, and so on – that sacred book with a decorative lock whose key must be kept from any and all nosey parkers. However, I was going for the alliterative, so “diary” it stays…and anyway, what’s the harm in a straight, happily married guy like me being in touch with his feminine side, hah hah!

Now, on to the “soon-to-be-daddy” bit. Yes, I am a soon-to-be daddy, and yes, that is a little scary even as I write it. But oh, what a wonderful little journey it was in getting to that point – the point at which I could refer to myself as being a father, if only in the future tense for now.

When Mel and I first discussed Adoption, we both knew it was right and wonderful, and a fulfilment of God’s mission for Humanity as we have discussed before in our blog. But to me at the start, I in my heart really thought of it more as a “purchase.” I figured that Adoption was basically “legal human trafficking.” I was happy about doing it, but I was cynical about the nature of the “buying and selling” of children. But then one day when I wasn’t very busy doing what I was supposed to be doing, I got chatting to my little sister-in-law. My little sister-in-law is a wonderful, beautiful little person whom I love dearly – truly, as if she were my own little sister. “Hey sis!” I said online. “Hey Daddy-To-Be!” she said. I was shocked! The gravity and beauty of that statement hit me like a ton of bricks – but brick of joy (if such a thing can exist!). It suddenly occurred to me – I am going to be a father! This isn’t a “purchase” at all! My future son or daughter is not a television or car that I’m just going to buy and maintain. And this person is not going to be a human that I’ve trafficked legally and who’s now in my care. This is going to be my son or daughter, and I am going to be his or her father! I am a daddy-to-be with our adopted child, just as if Mel were pregnant in the flesh with a natural-born child!

So, the great and joyful sea change started with me after an unassuming chat with my awesome little sister-n-law, and so thus begins my portion of our adoption blog – the Diary of a Soon-to-be Daddy!