Yesterday, D, JD, Munchkin and I were outside playing when BigBrother woke up from his afternoon nap. BigBrother came outside, happy to see playing kids. He stood next to Munchkin as she spun around. And then she said,

“I’m playing with my brother!”

D got teary eyed. I didn’t. Why? I was so unbelievably shocked. I mean, she’s called him her brother before but usually in conversations where we are discussing who is a brother. This was unprompted by question or subject of a discussion. She simply stated it. Plain as day. Her brother.

Today, D ran off to shower with JD because we had homemade maple syrup (care of Gramps) with our pancakes this morning which makes for very messy boys. BigBrother was playing with Thomas. Munchkin was sitting in front of me. She turned to me and said:

“My other Mommy is in the shower.”

You just have no clue. No clue how it felt to feel my stomach drop to my toes and the color drain from my face. My heart exploded, remade itself and exploded again. I just said, “Yes, she is,” and Munchkin went back to playing. I sat, glued to the chair, shocked to pieces and … validated. It was nice. Unexpected and nice.

I’m always amazed at what she understands especially when she verbalizes it on her own. It was during our November visit that she hit the both of us with the two mommies statement, also unprompted. I’m just continuously amazed by her resilience.

And, on the same note, continuously annoyed with the nay-sayers of open adoption. “Children will be confused.” My butt. Does she sound confused? “X-age is too young to explain adoption to a child.” My butt. She’s three (and some). Look at the ground our family has already covered because we were willing to put in the actual work to make sure she understood instead of coming up with some cop-out excuse. She understands it. It’s her everyday norm. It’s her reality.

So eat that.

(More on this subject tomorrow. I ended up in more tears tonight but right now D and I need to dish.)