Light Bulbs

It seems fitting that on Earth Day I am writing about the "greenest" of all light bulbs... those realizations that turn on inside your brain, those "Aha!" moments that really make you think of something in a new light.

Yesterday Scott, the kids and I flew down to Long Beach CA to visit our friends Sabina and Greg, who are also one set of Baden's God-parents and as Greg and Scott have been like brothers since childhood, they're also like family.

This was Baden's first flight since we brought him home from China 2 years, 8 months and 12 days ago. Part of me wondered how he would do on the flight, if he'd be nervous that he was being taken somewhere new, and if we'd experience the resurfacing of abandonment issues. The last time he'd been on a plane he'd gone from extreme hysteria to a total catatonic state.

This time many things were different, starting with him choosing to sit by me. The last time on a plane I was the last person he wanted to be around. I sat there and watched him figure out what almost all the buttons did - volume control, XM radio channel surfing, DirecTV channel surfing (we were on Jet Blue if anyone is wondering). Gadget Man was a happy guy! At one point I realized that he had no recollection of the flight home from China. Part of me can joke and say that I wish I were able to block that event out too, but that's only because it felt like we were never going to get there. For Baden, it wasn't just the nuisance of air travel and very long layovers that he had grappled with, he had more emotional trauma to work through. I anticipated that he'd feel as though he were being torn from everything familiar, in the same circumstance I would have felt that way. Yesterday however I realized the depth of the pain he must have been in.

I am so proud of my brave boy. Without realizing it, he took a big risk yesterday and came out the other side a boy who wanted the airplane to go back up in the air the moment we landed.