Lucky Friday the Thirteenth

I'm not a superstitious person - I don't knock on wood or throw perfectly good salt over my shoulder. I avoid walking under ladders strictly for safety reasons, not for luck and I open my umbrella indoors all the time. However, I do have to admit that when we were booking our trip to Guatemala this year to pick up our son and I saw that our return date of Friday, January 13, I did have a moment's pause. See, the adoption process didn't go as smoothly for us as you might hope, though taking to other adoptive parents, I'd say surprises, setbacks and "Arrghhh-NOOooooo" moments are pretty much par for the course. I didn't really believe that the Friday the Thirteenth would screw us up, but it did seem a bit ominous. We went ahead however, not wanting to pay for an extra night at the hotel and a more expensive weekend flight home just to assuage our slight concern. I'm so glad we didn't change. Forever now, every time someone mentions to me that it's Friday the 13th, I will remember the day that I brought my baby home. We first met him on the 9th, and that was a great day. The adoption in Guatemala was done on the 11th, and that was fine, and the day that we'll probably celebrate, but the 13th was the day it all became real. When we walked out of customs in Atlanta, with his papers saying he was a legal resident. When the plane touched down in Pittsburgh and I told him "We're home, Eddie" When I put him in his car seat in our car and saw all the familiar things that mean home after a long flight. And Friday the 13th was the day I put him in his crib in his room in his home for the very first time. It was the day that I stopped having adoption worries and started having real normal first-time-Mommy worries (why is everything in the world germy and dangerous? Is the room too hot? No? Then it must be too cold. Will he stop breathing if I stop staring at him? Laugh now all you not-yet-Mommies, all the people out there with kids know that you had that thought at least once.) So it's not a real anniversary, this Friday the Thirteenth, but it's a reminder. For me, it was the luckiest day ever.