early wake up

Rarely, rarely do we have the hard parts of adoption rear its head anymore, last night was one of those times, or at least as hard as it gets nowadays. Mia woke at 2am, crying out for me.  She had a little spot, behind her ear that hurt, and she wanted me to know all about it, going into whiny detail, upon whiny detail, and I listened, with as much patience as I could muster.  It was hard, but I propped my eyes open and did my best to follow the grouching.  

Let me make a disclaimer here, Mia is not, by nature a whiner, rarely grumping even when she does not feel well.  We rarely have any adoption related issues with her, but there are times when she clings, and whines in that needy way, it just screams out "adoption" .  Since she is such an easy and well adjusted child I make sure to closely watch that there are not undercurrents of resentment or upsets about her adoption that go unnoticed, because she is so easy.  Jon says I am obsessive and looking for things that aren't really there, but I watch, because adoption has a sneaky side that crops up like an invasive weed in my garden, so I keep on top of it.  

So last night, while for J I would have just given her some tylenol and sent her back to bed, with Mia, I took the extra time, barely hanging on to lucidity, and settled her down, petting and patting.  For Mia, she needs those times of me "there" with her, exclusively with her, and the opportunity that her not feeling well presented was too good to pass up.  I will use any chance I can get to bind her closer, making certain she is well adjusted, and if that time comes in the middle of the night, I will take it.  

Sadly, this morning we found out that the neck pain and ear ache was due to an inner ear infection, poor baby, now I am really glad I took the extra time with her, adoption or not, it just stinks!!!