Specta and my little Tweet Tweet

Now that I got the boys hooked on Big Fish, I figured I would blog about how something can look one way at one point in your life, but then when you go back and revisit it, you don't even recognize it. Its a little like Specta. The first time Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor - adoptive father in real life...see the tie in!) sees Specta it is a perfect, all be it a bit strange, town with a little white church at the end of the street and happy go lucky villagers who spend their days writing poetry and baking pies. When he returns years later, the town is a mess and one can't help but wonder if the town changed or if he did. K wanted to go through the boys scrapbooks the other day. We started with E1's, but she kept thinking E1 was E2 (E1 is Guatemalan and E2 is Ethiopian, not really much of a resemblance). After we got through E1's book, I decided to pull out E2's. It has been awhile since I really looked at his referral photo. In a word, it is a scary picture. His legs and arms are like twigs, his eyes protruding out of his head. I don't really ever remember SEEing him in that picture before, blinded by love, what ever you will call it, the picture looked so different to me that day. We went to a seminar at University of Chicago Children's Hospital this past weekend. In the powerpoint presentation, the doctor showed a photo of a little Ethiopian baby, tiny, eyes protruding, fist clenched, hanging on, barely. He plotted him on the growth curve, he wasn't on the curve, he fell on the label part of the paper where you would put the childs name as the original makers of the curve never thought a child could fall into that area. Then he said for a child plotting at that location on the chart, one ear infection and he snaps his fingers, it is over. The hair stood up on my arms as it sent a chill down my spine. In my blindness, I don't think I ever realized or believe that we could have lost E2 over some minor infection, but in reality, E2 was probably in that label part of the curve and just one ear infection away from the unthinkable. I look at this beautiful 2 1/2 year old boy that graps every moment of life and can't believe he is the same boy I see staring back at me in the referral photo. The Dr. said something else that day, that it is not a matter of the child being perfect, but is more important that the child is the perfect child for that family. I am so thankful for that little boy who has captured my heart since the first moment I met him and that I didn't see a sick little boy in that referral picture, I saw my son. God Bless you little Tweet tweet, I am so proud you call me mama!