Favorite things: Baby birds!

May 28, 2016 by Beth Shepherd

Baby birds! What’s not to like? Fuzzy, geeky, peepy balls of cuteness. I love this time of year, when everywhere you look there are feathered babies leaving their nests, trying out their new wings, walking in the awkward way baby birds do, swimming on top of the water with little spurts of speed, exploring the new world around them. Here are a few pictures I’ve taken of baby birds, mostly for my 366 Project. Baby goslings down at the edge of Lake Washington, a baby robin sitting on a wood chair in our yard, a baby finch being fed seed from his papa or mama, two baby Anna’s hummingbirds resting on our neighbor’s clothesline, and one Bushtit sitting on an obelisk in our garden. And for extra credit, see if you can find all four members of the finch family in the last photo!

It’s all about the journey,

Beth

Six months in a baby’s life

March 20, 2013 by Beth Shepherd

When we first met Baby Bird, in October 2011, she was a little baby: five-and-a-half months old and around 10 pounds. During our registration trip, we spent a week getting to know each other. Then we had to leave her behind.

Over the next six months, while we waited for both the U.S. and Armenian governments to give us the green light, we received very little information: no pictures, no updates on her health and well-being. No matter how loving her nannies were, I still felt sad she would spend more months living in an orphanage before we could be reunited as a family.

I poured over photos I had taken on our first trip and tried to imagine what she might look like. I grieved over developmental milestones we would miss–the firsts that many moms and dads are lucky enough to see.

In March of 2012, as we sat in the orphanage doctor’s office waiting for one of her nannies to bring her to us, I wondered: would she recognize us or have any memory of our smell or the way our voices sound?

And then, there she was! Six months later she had really grown, although by U.S. standards she was still a peanut, with her height and weight falling at the 10th percentile on the growth chart. Her glorious hair was auburn and much longer than it had been when we first met her, and her gray-green eyes had darkened to a light brown.

She had blue spots dotting her face which we were told was from antiseptic used to help children heal from chicken pox. On top of chicken pox, she had a bad case of the flu (and later on, when we changed our first diaper, we found out she also had a seriously bad diaper rash and yeast infection). Illnesses aside, she was still as cute as we’d remembered.

We were over-the-moon to be able to hold her in our arms once again. And this time, we whispered in her ear, we won’t have to say goodbye.

Strap-on Baby

May 11, 2009 by Beth Shepherd

He had a cute little body, an upturned nose, half-sleepy eyes and light brown skin. I knew he was ours from the moment I laid eyes on him. We picked him up, put on his diaper, dressed him in a cute Onesie, plopped him into a snug carrier and strapped him closely to my chest. He was everything I imagined our baby might be. Except that he was plastic.

Big Papa and I drove to Portland this past weekend, to attend a Northwest Adoptive Families (NAFA) class on baby and toddler care. As instructed, we arrived promptly at 8:00 a.m. to “pick out our baby” before class began. Oh, if only adoption was that simple.

Our first challenge was to select a baby who would tag along with us for the remainder of the class, lunch and bathroom breaks included. All the guys and gals bellied up to the bevy of babies, diapers, outfits and baby carriers. This was where the rubber meets the road. Gender bias was clearly influencing our choices and I’m not referring to what kind of ‘bits’ our baby was sporting. My selections for baby carriers were decidedly hip earth mama, sarong stylin’, Ikat print how-does-my-baby carrier-look-with-my-outfit accessories. Big Papa was tried and true REI meets Techno Geek, preferring the messenger-bag style baby carriers with buckles and rain-proof Gore-Tex.

The day proved to be a fascinating experience that we shared with roughly a dozen couples. Most were first-time adoptive parents, like us. A few had several birth children and one couple had adopted a baby girl just a week prior to the class. Little ‘Zoeylee’ sat just a few feet in front of us with her proud mom and dad, a hopeful reminder of what we all dreamed we might become one day…parents.

Eight hours later, Big Papa and I knew a lot more about infant development, feeding, bathing and the culture of adoption. During our day-long class, we bonded well with our plastic baby, who we adoringly nicknamed, Bubba. Of course, Bubba didn’t squirm, scream or poop.

We really enjoyed the break-out session on baby massage and were amused by the live baby bath demo (let’s just say that one 5-week old baby boy was decidedly not pleased with his fifteen minutes of fame), but the moments that really took our breath away had little to do with how-to and need-to-know.

Lani, a Korean adoptee, shared a moving story. Her story. She told us of being welcomed into a family of four as a two-and-a-half year old, and recalled what it was like being the only person of color in rural small town Oregon nearly forty years ago. Lani gave a loving portrayal of her adoptive parents and siblings, along with the traditions they created as a family.

One other moment is seared forever in my memory. John, a single adoptive dad, who was helping with the class, talked about his journey to find and parent his daughter. He described the challenges he faced as he made this brave and somewhat unique decision that would shape the rest of his life. As his eyes welled up with tears and his voice choked, he told us, “Adopting her was the best decision I ever made.”