Introducing Landon X

Our son, Landon Xavier, was born weighing 5 pounds, 9 ounces (Yeah, tiny, eh?!), and he was 19 inches long. We are so excited to be parents, and are more grateful than words can express to our birth mother, Natalie, who placed our boy with us. For those of you who have not experienced the blessing of being able to adopt (and yes, it is ironic that I phrase it that way), we wanted to share at least a few words that describe what we feel for Natalie. We wrote her a note telling her how grateful we are for her choice to place her little boy with us. We let her know that we can only imagine how difficult it was for her to leave the hospital, and we wanted her to understand how bittersweet it was for us as we felt her sorrow mixed with our joy at being able to have Landon Xavier in our lives.
We admire Natalie so much for her strength and courage. She made a brave choice that gave us the chance to share with her and others who have children what it means to be a parent. We wanted her to know that whenever she has someone ask why she placed her son that we hope she will be able to tell that person it was because of how much she loves him and because she knew that placing him with us was the right choice. So few people have the kind of compassion Natalie has for both her son and for us. Placing Landon Xavier with us was an act of the greatest kindness and generosity of spirit we know. It means so much to us to know that our son’s mother had the strength of character and humility to place him with our family. She has guts, and we love that about her!
We recognize that having Natalie's son as our own son now is a huge responsibility, and we promised her that we will do our best to give him everything he needs to be healthy and happy. As she receives and shares pictures of him with he family and friends as he grows up, and as she sees him from time to time (we are in an "open" adoption, meaning we have some degree of contact with Natalie on a continuing basis), we hope she will have a mother’s pride in knowing he is becoming the man she hopes he will become.

As Landon grows up, we look forward to telling him about when he was born and about his loving birth mother. We look forward to him understanding how much Natalie cares for him as he matures into adulthood and begins to understand how complicated things get in life. We will always let him know that she did right by him and that she holds a special place in our hearts.
On Thursday Landon Xavier met several of the people who have supported the two of us through our adoption journey. Everyone oohed and ahhed over how cute he is. We shared with them Natalie's courage and love for her precious son. On Friday, he met Mike's Aunt Karen, Aunt Irene, and Grandma Wini, and they were so excited to see him. On Saturday, he met his Great Grandma Lula, and she about fell over with surprise. There are many people who love Landon Xavier already and will continue to love him through the years and will support him in the activities he chooses to participate in. We are excited to share our lives with this little tyke, and we look forward to sharing more about him on this site.