SNOW DAYS

New York City has been blanketed by a giant snow storm – 28 inches in one 24 hour period. We have not had a storm like this for many years.

I see our family dogs frolicking in the newly fallen snow. The larger ones ploughing through and the one with shorter legs, jumping around like a bunny. Their excitement and joy was palpable.

This weather brings back memories of snow days when my girls were young.

I was never the one to go out and play in the snow. That was left to their father. He took them sledding and ice skating. I usually stayed home to cook a hearty winter meal, and had hot cocoa ready for their return.

There are several occasions that stand out in my mind. Bundling my older daughter in a snowsuit was an ordeal. It had zippers and buttons and Velcro. By the time she was all dressed with boots and a hood, she had to pee. Off everything came and once mission accomplished, the dressing process started all over again. Both of us now ready for the elements, we ventured out into the snowy wilderness. I can still see her waddling down the path in that periwinkle snowsuit, picking up snow and not truly understanding what it was or why it easily blew away in the wind.

Then there was the time my younger daughter and I went for a stroll in the snow. After wandering around for a while, we turned towards home. She was not ready to go in and made a snow cave right outside our building. There was so much snow that a 4 year old could dig a tunnel to nowhere. She was the engineer. Her friend helped carve out the cave.

Or the time my older daughter taught her sister how to make snow angels on the lawn of their grandparents’ home in Westchester County. They had such a great time, there were snow angels, as far as the eye could see.

I wonder if they would have ever even seen snow if they were raised in Texas where they were born.

Adoption not only gives a child new parents, siblings and extended family, it exposes the child to new traditions, celebrations, foods, experiences and sometimes even weather. Maybe with another family, my daughters would have never seen snow, or gone skiing or fled to a warmer climate in the winter.

My younger daughter chooses to live in Las Vegas. My older daughter braces the cold and lives in Northern Westchester County.  Me? I will stay inside, with a hot beverage and my thick fuzzy socks and oversized sweater. Just as I watched the snow fall, I shall now observe the clean-up and enjoy seeing the children’s excitement of the magic that a blanket of snow can bring.

Kathy Ann Brodsky, LCSW is a New York and New Jersey licensed social worker, adoptive mom and advocate for ethical adoption practice. She has prepared thousands of adoption homestudies, counseled adoptive parents and parents-to-be, and has trained professionals to work with adoptive families. She was Director of the Ametz Adoption Program from March 1992 to March 2015. She is Head Writer for Adoption.net, member of the Adoption Advisory Board of Path2Parenthood and has a private practice in New York City. She was a member of the Advisory Board for POV’s Adoption Series and named an “Angel in Adoption” by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption in 2001. Follow or reach her at ADOPTION MAVEN BLOG or EMAIL.