C is for Cindy, my sister (by Teri Stevens)

For this year's A-Z Challenge, I am organising my writing group's participation for the first time. So I am posting each entry here as well as on the website, Write On, Mamas! who are a writing group based in the San Francisco North Bay area. We will have 25 Mamas and one Papa writing on a different letter of the alphabet during the A-Z Blog Challenge. Comments are always so appreciated, but would be lovely if you would comment on the Write On, Mamas! blog so the author will read your comment. Thanks and look forward to reading your blogs.



Photography by Mary Allison Tierney

Adopted a son.

 

Benjamin.

 

Cindy is a first-time parent. 

 

Dad, John, her husband, is too.

 

Emotional rollercoaster is what they rode throughout his gestation, which ended with an emergency Caesarian. 

 

Fortunately Ben is a healthy, beautiful boy.

 

Grandparents met their new grandson in the hospital.

 

Holli is Ben’s birth mother. 

 

I met him when he was just eight days old.

 

Joseph is his middle name, in honor of our Stepfather who passed.

 

Kelly will host a shower now that Ben has arrived.

 

Low income housing is where Holli is living, made possible by Cindy and John who hope it will help her get back on our feet.

 

March 19, 2013 is Ben’s birthday. 

 

Nephew to hug, hold and watch grow and learn.

  

One-night encounter is how our family was blessed with Benjamin’s presence.

 

Patience was necessary throughout the 72 hour waiting period during which Holli had the option to change her mind.

 

Quite a relief when she signed the paperwork, finalizing the adoption.

 

Reno, Nevada, the city of Ben’s birth and where he lives with his new family. 

 

Social worker, Linda, calmly guided Cindy and John through the adoption process.

 

Three of his cousins also met him on his eighth day. 

 

Underdeveloped he was not, weighing in at 9 pounds, 20 inches.

 

Verbal commitment from Holli was all they had to go on while they waited for his birth, that and faith.

 

“Waiting is the hardest part,” chorus line from The Waiting by Tom Petty.

 

X , the twenty-fourth letter in the alphabet, which Ben will someday learn to recite.

 

Yellow congratulatory flowers were delivered to the happy parents.

 

Zoo animals from my son’s baby room decorate Ben’s nursery and watch him thrive in his new home with the parents who dreamed him there. 

 

Cindy with Benjamin

After receiving a BA in Journalism from the University of Nevada, Reno, Teri Stevens moved to northern California where she held numerous marketing director positions in the Shopping Center industry, most notably Ghirardelli Square. Amidst the joyful chaos of raising three five-year-olds, an adopted son and twin daughters, Teri makes time to write.