Santa!


So Santa and Mrs Claus came to our house to visit Rudi! How did we get such a special visit, you might be wondering? Because of surrogacy, obviously! ;)

One of the really neat things about being connected to another family the way we are is that there are lots more people who love Rudi and want to be part of his life.

2 of these people are George and Lil, Jay's parents. (Jay, in case you don't remember, is the husband of Tara, who carried Rudi for us)

George and Lil are, much like Jay (I guess he got it somewhere ;), very kind and generous people and they have expressed great interest in Rudi and how he has come into the world. In particular, I feel a special kinship with Lil. She was also not able to have her own biological children. She married George and became step-mother to his children. Both of them understand that there are many ways to build a family, and family is not defined only by genetics. Jake and I both feel honored that they want to be part of Rudi's life.

So enter Santa and Mrs. Claus! George has the perfect beard and twinkling eyes, and Lil is merry and exudes warmth and kindness. They are the spitting image of Santa and Mrs. Claus and they kindly offered to come and visit Rudi in their outfits for his first picture with Santa, adding another one to their 15 engagements for the season.

I thought Rudi would cry, and part of me was kind of hoping for the classic crying-with-Santa picture, but he was cool as a cucumber for most of the time they held him. When he did finally start crying he'd stop as soon as I got my phone out for the pic! Can you even believe that?

We had lunch together and as our conversation wove around various topics it really struck home to me yet again how lucky we are. Not just for Tara and her gift to us, but also that she was supported by such amazing people, who are still invested in Rudi's health and happiness. Surrogacy is such a powerful gift in so many ways, as we are still finding out!

It also occurred to me that we could have a classic kid-logic situation on our hands here as Rudi grows up - he might just believe that Grandpa George and Grandma Lil actually ARE Santa and Mrs. Claus! We might have to get creative about this one!

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