For the last several months our cat, Gary, has been the worst cat ever. He has been jumping on counters, swatting at us, scratching on the couch, running around like an idiot, yowling at 4 am, and being overly needy and annoying. This may sound like normal cat behavior to you dog folks out there, but in reality Gary is a pretty cool kitty. He is a bit needier than the average cat, but he is extremely well behaved and mellow. He knows what surfaces are his to jump on and which aren’t; he is quiet when we sleep, and usually only talks when he’s hungry; he never scratches the furniture, only his post. We couldn’t figure out what was going on, it was really quite disturbing to us. Then, the behavior stopped abruptly, he was good old good Gary again. Why the sudden change? Was he sick? Was it the weather change? And then we figured it out, Gary had been reacting to his people’s stress, our adoption stress. And now we aren’t feeling that any more, and neither is he. Why, you may ask, has our stress level gone down? We are feeling good about our baby again.
We have made the shift towards anticipating a different and mysterious little person who will soon complete our family. There are so many great things to look forward to. We get to meet this person’s biological mother, that is really cool. We’ll know what she looks like and talks like, we’ll be able to answer all of those tough “where did I come from” questions. We will potentially be at the hospital when this little creature is born! That wasn’t even a remote possibility before. We’ll be bringing home a newborn rather than a 6-9 month old, which means we’ll get to experience all those wonderful changes that happen in those first important months. And most of all, we are feeling confident for the first time that our child, whoever she or he may be, will finally be coming home to us.
Joel and I have been much happier people the last month or so. I put that all down to one word, hope. We have spent a long time without it, and now that it’s back we are ecstatic. So, much thanks to our soon to be child, for giving your mom and dad hope again.
I’m pretty sure that Gary always scratched me when I came over, so I don’t know about this “nice cat” stuff.
BTW, our two cats make his little tantrums sound pretty nice. They’ve gotten really, really good at opening cabinet doors and they’ve been practicing that a lot. Plus the usual hairballs, running around at 3am and fighting with each other, etc. Oh and Paula never had Saphona spayed, so occasionally she gets REALLY friendly.
I’ll continue thinking good thoughts for you re the adoption stuff. Do you ever hear if anyone is interested or are you in the dark until you get The Big Call?
@Brad Zimmerman: Pfft. Gary scratched you because he sensed the evil 😉
Our agency will notify us when they think a birthmother matches our preferences. The agency tells us a little bit about her and then we have to decide if we want to show her our family book or not. Basically we approve her, and then she has to approve us. If she picks us, we then meet her in person. After that, we both agree it’s a good match and we then have the official stamp of approval. Isn’t making babies sexy?
Having a newborn around is just about one of the coolest things in the entire world. It is a daily reminder of how fragile our beginnings are. Stay strong, hopeful, and happy.
I am so happy for you that you have found your happy place and hope in the world of adoption.