A Wonderful Visit!

I am still on a high from the wonderful day that September 16th turned out to be. My son Matthew moved out in late August to go to school in another city. September 16th we had a visit with Nathan and his family. So I got to see Matt too and it's always wonderful to see the boys together. I miss Matt so it was nice to spend that time together.

However that wasn't even the most wonderful part. Our visits with Nathan and his family are usually two to three hours long. This latest visit was seven hours long. The exciting part is that Nathan was practically glued to me. Usually I have to convince him to play with me. Naturally he would rather play with Matthew or play or cuddle with his parents. Usually when we walk in the door he yells, "Matt, Matt, Matt". He has never shown excitement in seeing me at previous visits. This time Matt arrived 30 mins before I did and when I arrived Nathan come to the door yelling, "Shelley, Shelley, Shelley". Needless to say that made me smile.

We spent a couple of hours playing. Matt, Nathan and I played together and after a while Matt was hanging out with Nathan's dad and Nathan and I spent some time playing just the two of us. You know boys and dirt, well we dug up dirt with his trucks for quite some time. It was fun to be playing with Nathan for a length of time rather then just a few mins here and there. I got pictures of the boys playing with the trucks and dirt together, as well as pictures of Nathan and I playing in the dirt.

Nathan, Matt and George had fun in the pool while I took pictures of them. It's really very special to see Matt and Nathan laughing together. I also absolutely adore watching Nathan with his dad.

At one point, I went into the house as I could hear Nathan's sister's both crying and his mom was alone with both babies in the house. I had left Nathan outside with his dad and Matthew. I took one of the girls to her room and was rocking her and feeding her. That brought back memories of doing that with both Matthew and Nathan. After only a few mins Nathan's mom brought Nathan up and sat him on the foot stool in front of me. Paula said that Nathan had been looking for me and wanted to talk to me. He sat there and talked up a storm. It was so wonderful. He's so funny. He was explaining to me that he had two baby sisters, named Brianne and Jacqueline but he didn't know which one I was feeding. I told him that I was feeding Brianne and he told me again how there were "two babies but I don't know which one this is". It was so cute and funny.

As I was feeling Brianne, Nathan was asking me to read him a book. After I burped Brianne and put her to bed, Nathan and I climbed into his bed together to read story books. He immediately cuddled right up to me. He doesn't usually do that. We read two stories, one about Valentine's Day and one about Halloween. I was loving having him cuddled right into me like he was. In the midst of the second story I went to get Matt to come and take pictures. We got some really wonderful pictures. I will definately have to blow at least one of them up and frame it.

While reading the story about Halloween I told Nathan that Halloween is Matt's birthday. He asked, "Matt who?" That was so funny because Nathan adores Matthew. I told him, "Matthew that's downstairs with your dad, your brother Matthew". I have always referred to Matt as Nathan's brother to him and Nathan has never questioned it before. I knew one day it would happen. He said, "Matt's not my brother" and had this really confused look on his face. I told him that Matt was his brother and he could ask his mom about it. He said "ok". Nathan doesn't know the full story yet. He knows that he grew in my "belly" but he doesn't understand and he doesn't know the term birthmother yet. I felt a little pang when he said that Matt wasn't his brother but I also understood how he wouldn't get it yet. He'll get there. Over a year ago I gave him the children's book, "A Koala for Katie". I saw it on his nightstand and it was well worn. George also mentioned that they are now reading it to him. So I know the education is happening and that some day he will understand our relationship. Nathan wanted me to read him a third story but it was time for dinner.

We also had ice cream and Nathan wanted me to sit at his little plastic table with him to eat our ice cream. I have some pretty funny pictures of me with my long legs sitting at that tiny table. It was so wonderful that he wanted me there.

Interestingly enough, I discovered that two foods I really can't stand, mustard and blueberries, are also foods that Nathan doesn't like. That was kind of neat to find out.

I definately felt special and like Nathan and I are finally starting to connect. I will never forget that visit. This is one that I definately need to scrapbook and soon before my memories fade. It seems I was not the only one who was pleased with this visit. Paula emailed me and shared that the next morning Nathan was asking when Matt and I will be coming to visit again.

I have never sent Nathan anything in the mail before. I just mailed him a card that is really cute and I wrote in it telling him I had a lot of fun playing with him when we visited. I threw in something to make him smile, halloween stickers.