Zusammen!

When Susanne and I began taking steps for her to conceive and give birth to our child, she told me that she wanted us to have a baby. Not just her--us. And every step of the way—from selecting a donor, to going to doctor’s appointments, to laboring and delivering our precious Daniel, we’ve, in many respects, gone through these things together. (I do realize by the way that Susanne's part of this was much, much greater than any contributions I made.)

But anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about Danny’s upcoming adoption which will formally be signed off on by a DC judge on Saturday. Something was nagging at me and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then it struck me. Since only I have to legally adopt him, this process has been about me. My background checks, my financial ability to provide for this child, my soon to be new status as Danny’s legal parent.

But I don’t envision just me standing there holding Danny, now a legal and rightful mother to our son at this cermony. I envision us, as a family, going through just one more step in the journey of our family. It’s about me and Susanne both becoming Danny’s legal parents together. I’m not sure if I’m capturing what I’m feeling about this.

In German, (which Susanne speaks fluently) the word for together is “zusammen”. I love the sound of it as it reminds me of the name Susanne. Yes that's it. This is all just zusammen!!!