mom syndrome: In the beginning....the story of Lili and Annie.

Welcome to Mom Syndrome!

eicherumba and mojennymo are merging our blogs in to one, to talk about all things adoption, down syndrome, mom hood, friendship, life, and everything in between. It is going to be epic.

Ok, so this is the story of how we met and became BFF's......

Before we get started let us just say this:

Lisa is married to this guy:

Jenny is married to this guy:

Now that we are clear ...on with the story!

Lili: When my husband, Joey, and I made the decision to adopt a child with Down syndrome, we knew that our lives would be blessed beyond imagination. One unexpected blessing that our little guy brought us was some amazing friendships. Friendships rooted in deep love and understanding. My very first friend in the Down syndrome/adoption world is Tesney. You can read our story here.

If you are too lazy too click on the link (kidding, I probably wouldn’t do it either) then here’s the lowdown:Tesney and her husband were in the process of adopting a little boy from Russia when I found her. Joey and I were in the “we are ready to commit” stage of our process, and Tesney walked me through things. We finally decided to commit to a precious little boy, also in Russia, named Kirill. We were so excited to make him our son, and Tesney was thrilled for us. Fast forward a little bit and things were just not panning out. Instability with Joey’s job and some logistics made it clear to us that we could not bring a child home at that time. So with broken hearts, we let Kirill go. Tesney walked me through the heartache. She was my rock. Not long after that, she and her husband were the ones left broken hearted, when they learned that their little boy was no longer available for adoption.

They knew that their child was still waiting, so they told their agency that they wanted to proceed. Soon their agency sent them a referral photo of a little blonde headed boy who desperately needed a family. A little boy named Kirill. Our Kirill. I kid you not, of all the orphans in Russia, they were sent a picture of Kirill. Tesney called me, told me the news, and there are no words to describe the emotions I felt knowing that he would be theirs. That he would not be left behind. Overjoyed simply doesn’t cut it.

After a long and hard process, they brought Kirill home. Tesney and I had grand plans of meeting and tried for a long time to make it happen. (We are in Texas, they are in Alabama). Two years later, I got a text from Tesney letting me know that a friend of hers was chosen as the adoptive mom of a soon to be born baby boy with Down syndrome. Low and behold that little boy was being born in Houston. Her friend, Jenny, being a single mom, could use all the support she could get, so Tesney decided to join her on the journey. And we would finally meet. Win-win.

A few months later, June rolled around, and I got the call from Tesney that the baby was on his way, and soon she would be too. Jenny, her two kids, and mom headed to Houston right away to be there for the birth of baby Jojo. He was born on June 20th. I knew that her crew had to be getting stir crazy being cooped up in a hospital or hotel room all day every day. Plus, adoption comes with enough costs as is, and there was no sense in her spending money on a hotel room when we had beds for everyone.

A few texts and a phone call later, my kids and I were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our house guests. I knew nothing about Jenny, but I trusted Tesney. We were watching out the window as we saw a little rental car creeping by. They appeared to be lost, so I knew it was them. We made our way outside to flag them down and they pulled up at our sidewalk, hopped out of the car, and into our home.

Annie: Jojo was born on the 20th of June, and by the 24th, it was time for my mom to get back to Birmingham. We rolled up in front of Lisa's house, never having met her in our lives, and unloaded the kids and all our stuff. Emmy (my mom), literally gave us all a quick hug and said "nice to meet you!" to Lisa, and sped off to the airport to catch her flight.

And so there we were. Me and my kids. Her and her kids (husband was out of town). Our kids hit it off right away, and by that evening when Tesney arrived Lisa and I had already become fast friends. More on our first day, the scary robot in her dining room, how I saved her dog's life, and how she broke a gas station can be found on my original post here.

Tesney and her kiddos were able to stay with us for a week, and we had an awesome time! We split our time between visiting Jojo in the hospital, and doing fun summer stuff with all of our kids! Tesney and I had been friends since we were kids, but having someone drive across four States to be with me during that time is something I will never forget!

There is just no way to explain the friendship and bond that Lisa and I formed in the 3ish weeks we were there except to say that God knew what He was doing with this crazy plan!

When you bring your baby home from the hospital, have your first sleep as a family of 4, baby's first bath and so much more with other people, not to mention in their home, you just become....family. And that is exactly what happened. Her kids starting calling me Annie (because Archie couldn't get Jenny to come out right). My kids started calling her Lili because we decided "Miss Lisa" sounded too formal.

That was over a year ago and not much has changed since! Distance has been a challenge, but we have been blessed to make trips to Houston and they have made trips to Birmingham. We talk on the phone every day. We love each others kids as if they were our own.

So, it just made sense to start a new blog together. Our stories overlap so much at this point that we can't really tell them separately anyway......plus we are way funnier and more awesome-er when we do things together.

Mom syndrome will feature posts about all sorts of topics, as well as guest posts {That one time when____} and a weekly dose of "Stuff What the Kids Say". It's gonna be FUN!

Thanks for letting us share,