Greetings from NYC! I am going to count visiting Jay's birthparents as my primary #AdamsActs for Days 14 and 15, but we also had a few other things peppered in as well. We gave away some tokens and tickets to some kids at Chuck-E-Cheese (or the "House of the Maniac" as Jay calls it for some reason that is entirely a mystery to me.) we treated Jay's birthdad ("Pop") to breakfast and his birthmom (the lovely Miss N.) to dinner. I also refilled someone's metro card.
More than anything though, I think that this visit is ultimately a kindness for Jay. I don't know if there is a greater gift one could give to a child who was adopted, than a very clear sense of where they came from. He will know how he got those beautiful almond shaped eyes, that sort of disappear when he smiles. He will know where his beautiful brown skin came from, and he will know that his hands are an exact replica of his first father's. I think these things provide a sense of identity that is priceless. Above all, though, he will know that he is loved by all of his mommies and daddies.
Our ability to come to NYC as frequently as we have is due to the generosity of two people. My friend Melissa, who lets me and Jay completely take over her life and apartment whenever we come to town, and my friend Jess. Jess works for JetBlue airlines and has been unbelievably generous in allowing us to use her buddy passes for super affordable flights to and from the city.
We truly could not afford to visit Jay's birthfamily this frequently if it were not for Jessica. So, my final act of kindness for the day is that I sent an email to Jessica's supervisor bragging about their wonderfully fabulous employee. You see, Jess and I weren't even friends when she made this offer. She was following our adoption journey through this blog, and she saw a need. Then she met that need in a very tangible way. She has since become a very, very dear friend to me. So, JetBlue gets a rave review. And hopefully Jessica gets a huge raise. Or maybe at least a gold star?
You will have the privilege of getting to know Jess a little better tomorrow as my guest blogger for Day 16, in which she shares a humorous kindness fail. I am all too familiar with the fails and, in fact, had one today. When my sweet boy handed his tokens to a little girl, she gave him a glare that said "I don't need your filthy hand-me-down tokens" and she pushed his hand away. I stifled my desire to shove her into the skee ball game, and we moved on. We had more success with a different toddler who gladly accepted his filthy tokens.
