Since the delivery a lot has happened. My IPs and grandmother spent two weeks living in Iowa and getting used to their new bundle of joy. During that time, we visited often and really learned so much about each other. They had so many things to do before returning to France - a trip to Madison to meet with our agency and for one IP to return to France early. On their trip they stopped in a small town, Cuba City, and took pictures because that is where I was born! Too cute :) After their return, they still needed to get Little A's passport. This meant a trip to Chicago mid-week. Thankfully everything went well and Little A was now ready to fly overseas to his home.
We had only one more night to spend together. We relaxed and ate our favorite pizza, Happy Joe's, with them at the hotel. I held Little A while I ate, because I knew after tomorrow it would be months or years from now that I would hug or hold him again. I cherished every moment. He is so handsome and sweet. I just love the smell of babies and their so-soft skin.
On Friday, February 3rd the newest addition to their family would be flying to Paris for the first time. We met the family at the airport. I had packaged 7000 mL of breast milk for them to take with - this was my gift to Alexandre. I want him to be as healthy as possible, so his parents don't have to worry!
I couldn't believe how many pieces of luggage they had between the three of them! They were large suitcases too. Once they were all checked in and had baggage scanned we sat, held Little, and chatted with them. Of course I knew they were ready to return to France after being here for one month, but at the same time I wished they could stay. As I said before, we'd really learned a lot about them, we experienced the delivery and birth of a beautiful baby boy together, and now they would be thousands of miles away and living on another continent.
It would be absurd of me to say that I was not emotional. I held my tears back for as long as I could, but once they started to go through the check-in gate it was much more difficult.
I wasn't crying because I was sad, I was crying because it happened.
There was a little hiccup in their departure. Little A needed a boarding pass, so this gave my family more time to see Little A and his grandmother. She was so sweet the entire time she visited Iowa. I do believe she began to enjoy Iowa but was definitely ready to go home. My daughters really adored her too.
Finally, it was time to leave. They went through the gates and my IP had to be scanned! Of course it must have been because he looks like a terrorist! Really?!? He does not, but I think if you are carrying a two-week old child with you, you probably have explosives in the car seat!
We waved our final waves and blew our last kisses...au revoir bon petit A une famille
