The Weather in Memphis is Lovely Today

How do I know? Because we’re here, hanging out at the Memphis Marriott instead of landing in Almaty.

Our plane couldn’t land as scheduled last night because of intense thunderstorms, so we circled Memphis for a while and then diverted to Little Rock to land, refuel and then fly back to Memphis. We missed our flight to Amsterdam by an hour, and since there is only one per day at 7:20 pm we spent the night here. We’re now biding our time until tonight’s departure. We had a "romantic" dinner at the nearby IHOP, I took a long bubble bath, we slept in late and ordered a tasty breakfast via room service. Now Frank is dancing around the room in his undies and …wait….he found the remote control. Now he’s sprawled out on our comfy bed clicking through the channels like a real man. ;-) We’re glad this delay didn’t happen on our first trip; we would have been flllipping out. And we’re so thankful that we have some breathing room with our timing this week. We’re unruffled, but we want to have Milo in our arms yesterday.

I wish we could do some sightseeing, but our hotel is far from the heart of it all, and we have our heavy carry-on baggage to lug around. Plus the cab rides would cost a small fortune, so we just asked for a late check-out at the hotel. Lame, I know!

There is much to see here in the “home of blues and birthplace of rock ‘n roll.” I’ve never been to Graceland, but like the kitschy appeal of it. (And my friend, Florence, the world's #1 Elvis fan, would be so excited. Hi Florence! No, we haven’t spotted him yet.) I am taking a virtual tour of Memphis via the TravelHost magazine in our room: Mmmm…the catfish and barbeque are delicious, the Memphis Rock ‘n Soul Museum is so cool, the live blues bands are smoking hot, I could feel the ghosts of legends while inside Sun Studios, and the girls at the Coyote Ugly bar are really slutty! We’ll be back here someday I’m sure, on a cross-country trip in a bitchin’ RV with Milo and his best friend in tow. (We’ve been salivating over this retro style RV for 2 years: http://www.tada-rv.com/trailers.php?tab=photo&imgid=17724)

One of the nice things about these long flights is being able to devour the books you’ve been intending to read, and also watching good movies in-flight. I finally read a book I’ve had for years, Christopher Reeve’s Nothing is Impossible. He is a personal hero of mine, and although there is no comparison between his obstacles and ours, his words are inspirational.

A favorite excerpt:

“The vast majority of people live within a comfort zone that is relatively small. The comfort zone is defined by fear and our perception of our limitations. We are occasionally willing to take small steps outside it, but few of us dare to expand it. Those who dare sometimes fail and retreat, but many experience the satisfaction of moving into a larger comfort zone and the joyful anticipation of more success. A person living with a disability may find the courage to leave the comfort zone of his own house for the first time. An able-bodied individual might decide to face claustrophobia by taking up scuba diving. Even as our country tries to cope with terrorism, most of us know intuitively that living in fear is not living at all.”

Looking back at my life thus far, I think I have a relatively big comfort zone. Frank too. We try not to miss out on living our best lives for fear of failing or looking stupid. Diving into international adoption from a “difficult” country didn’t feel outside our comfort zone, but as we drew closer, learned more about the risks, and endured all of the sudden changes, our comfort zone has been stretched far beyond our expectations. Sometimes we could practically hear the sound of our mental universe stretching to accommodate our new destiny, like a sound from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It is often said that this process is not for the faint of heart. But we have found it to be kind of like learning to ride a bicycle. It’s great fun, but scary at first. And there will be some scrapes, bruises and spectacular crashes along the way. But then there is the moment of “Hey, look. We’re doing it. Holy crap, we’re really doing it!”

Christopher Reeve also has some beautiful things to say about parenting in his book:

“As parents we all have different ideas of what success means for our children. I think the most important aspect of success has to do with finding a real passion for something in life. It means a responsibility to live up to one’s potential. That has to be discovered; it can’t be forced upon a youngster growing up. We cannot expect children to be replicas of us. From the minute they emerge from the womb they are already themselves. That must be honored, and they must be given the tools and opportunities to go as far as they possibly can on their own.”

I couldn’t agree more, and I look so forward to seeing what Milo develops passions for in his life. I just hope it doesn’t include those slutty girls at Coyote Ugly. :-)

So now I've added the song Walking in Memphis to the adoption soundtrack in my head. During each stage of this process, there has always emerged a fitting, representative song that plays over and over in my mind, and will probably always remind me of where I was at the time – emotionally and physically. Sometimes the lyrics don’t even really apply as much as the feeling and musicality of the song. I’d like to make a mix CD of the entire soundtrack for Milo to listen to someday. It will be a diverse mix … artists such as Jack Johnson, Howie Day, Eva Cassidy, David Gray, Don Williams, Feist, Death Cab for Cutie, Louis Armstrong, Cowboy Junkies, Coldplay, James Taylor, Carole King…so many great songs that embody the intensity of this experience. I'll share the playlist one day soon.

Ok, enough rambling. Boy it’s nice to have some time to kill. It’s been a while. Thank you again Rosie and Andrew for staying at the house and holding down the fort. Thank you to everyone who celebrated our birthdays with us and gave us a great send-off. Thank you to all those who leave us thoughtful comments -- and please keep ‘em coming. They give our “little engine that could” a turbo boost.

Off to the airport again. Eyes on the prize...