I play a game with my kids, “Do you want to know a secret?”  And of course they do.  So they come over and I whisper “You’re my favorite!” or “I love you so much it’s ridiculous!” or something along those lines.  And they love it, and I love it.  And just recently, they’ve gotten the hang of actually whispering, so now they do it back.

And tonight, at my Brother-in-law-in-law’s (the Hubs’ sister’s Hubs) birthday dinner, Heriberto whispered to me, “You’re the best mom in the whole word!”

And so I begin this blog.  (Was planning to anyway, obviously.)  But I’m glad it’s tonight and that that happened.  Because I’m not his only mom in the whole world, and as soon as he said it, I thought that.  Now I’m fairly sure he didn’t think of that.  He’s only 5.  But he will.  And so goes the dance of post-adoptive-placement life.  Normal events (though special and sweet) have that second significance.

I’ll always be the second mom – to him, to his twin brother, and to the next kids we’re in-process to adopt.  And we’re very open with our kids about  their history.  So they know they have two moms, two dads, and a heritage that makes their skin/eyes/hair/history different than ours.  But we’re building new history today and tomorrow.  And when they’re grown, we’re the only parents they’ll remember.

But when they’re grown, will they still want to tell us we’re “the best?”  It’s not a given.  Unlike lots of kids, they do have another option for that title.  But we sure hope we’re that kind of close with them, even as we help them search for their biological parents some day down the road.

Nights like tonight remind me of the tremendous responsibility of parenting – for all parents, not just adoptive ones.  We’re given our kids for a time, and that time flies by quickly.  But in it, we’re commanded to love them well, train them well, give them what they need to grow into adults of good character who will in-turn care for those around them. And then they’ll be off, doing whatever it is they’ll do in their adulthood.

I sure do hope they’ll still remember to drop in on their Mama every once in a while.