Full Circle

When I began this blog more than two years ago I used the phrase "mama blanc". I had heard from a fellow adoptive mama this was our name that was given to us by the children. Honestly, even though this is our third trip here I really had never heard it. After the first trip I was considering changing the name, but really why bother?  It still meant "white mama" so it was still fitting.

Well...today I heard the phrase,"Mama Blanc". Rachel told me the children use it to describe us women coming for them. Apparently, the children had a lively discussion about their mama's this morning. Later, we went to the orphanage, I heard my own little Grace saying,"mama blanc" intermixed in a whole lot of Kreyole. She was talking to her friends and "mama blanc" was all I could pick up. I asked Rachel later what she was saying. Rachel said she was telling he other children I was HER mama blanc and they were not to touch me.   After we left the orphanage, we went for a wonderful lunch. I needed to take Grace potty, and as she sat there seeming to study my face I looked at her and said,"Mama Blanc?" She just smiled and said,"Oui".

In that moment, I had been claimed. I was her mama. Somehow been though we do not speak the same language we knew where we belonged in eachother's lives.  I responded back with a simple,"Oui".

As for Alex, I am mama to him too. I was not allowed to put him down at the orphanage. That was funny too. He wanted to be where the children were in the middle of the action, but safely in my arms where I could hold no one else.

Now, you may be wondering, hmmmm..... How does that work?  Claimed by both children. How will I manage?  Funny thing is, they have claimed one another too. She lovingly patted his knee in the car today and he likes to nap right on top of her. She doesn't mind though.

Somehow God knew these children from two different mountain tops are right where they are supposed to be.... With their siblings from the other end of the world from two different villages in Russia and their parents from plain old USA.