2020 will be remembered for many things, and many of those things we’d all like to forget.

This post is a little off-topic for a cooking blog, but it is a home cooking blog and will certainly be influenced by our new family member.

That said, for my family, 2020 lit up with the miracle of a new baby boy.

In August, after over a decade of my husband and I trying to grow our family, we were chosen by a birth mother in Memphis, Tennessee to be the parents of a baby boy due December 11, 2020.

Fast forward to November 25 (the day before Thanksgiving) when we got the call that birth mom was heading to the hospital, in labor three weeks early (still full-term).  Hours later Wolf Thomas Machowski was born, a healthy 6 pound 7 ounce boy.

We found ourselves traveling all day Thanksgiving day to Memphis. We took the required Covid test at the hospital and went to our hotel to wait for morning to go meet our son and bring him home.

I’d packed two Cup O’Noodles for us just in case. So that’s what we ate for our Thanksgiving dinner. We got the call that our test we’re negative and we could go get baby in the morning.

We brought Wolf home to our hotel where I sit writing this, several days later awaiting word that the legal stuff is in place for us to bring Wolfie home to Washington and settle in to our new life with this little Thanksgiving blessing.

The outpouring of love and support by friends and family gives me so much gratitude that our future will be better, brighter and full of hope and potential just like my baby boy. He looks into my eyes and all I can think is we must be our best for him and for the future.

For anyone struggling to grow your family, know that we experienced years of fertility treatment, miscarriage, and the hills and valleys of the adoption process. We finally have our beloved baby. Take care of yourselves as you go through the many excruciating and stressful moments, and if I can be of support, I will.