"Adoption Stories" is a wonderful show but I have one caviat - don't count on your pickup trip being like the ones they show. Yes, you might have a fairy tale meeting and trip, it is possible. However, I, who assumed I would have such a meeting, ended up being handed my daughter on a busy street just outside the embassy and having to help her get used to me in the middle of a crowded room - NOT an easy thing. I also became sick on the trip and looked like a wilted lettuce leaf by the time my daughter and I got back home. Only my parents were able to meet us since we arrived late at night and there were no balloons, etc. At first, I think because I had watched so many epidodes of "Adoption Stories," I was VERY depressed about how difficult my pickup trip was and how uneventful our homecoming was. However, after having my daughter home for over a year now, I can truly say that the joy comes from the day to day parenting of my daughter and the three days in Guatemala are remembered fondly if not remembered as fairytale. A friend of mine likened my experience to that of a bio mother who goes in to give birth and ends up having to have an unexpected C-section. Things didn't happen as pleasantly or quite the way I expected but, now that there is some distance, I see that all that matters is that they happened. And boy, do I have a story to tell my daughter when she is older!
