exposing my boob for you all

What I won’t do to get blog traffic!

Seriously, Sunshine has been hosting an ink party the last couple of days that I hung out at. I think I drank too many margaritas at the party because I willingly took my top off for the masses all in the name of sharing ink. But it is all for good, really.

Most folks who have been regular readers here under the Big Top are well aware of the tattoos I have. For Sunshine I willingly shared my very first one because, well, a girl never forgets her first time and because it is the one that started it all. For those folks who don’t know, the tattoo I shared at the party is the tiny baby feet.

Isn’t it too-too cute? Not the boob, you boob! The feet! Aren’t those itty-bitty feet amazing?

These baby feet may be small, measuring only about 1 inch in length, but they represent so much. They are actual sized replicas of Daniel Quinn’s feet when he was born and tipped the scales at 1lb 6 oz. Those feet are beyond precious. Those feet are amazing. Those feet are attached to the strongest, bravest person I have ever known. The most macho, knuckle-dragging man could never, ever endure all the pain that my son has lived through.

The ink also represents the bond that Daniel and I have. There is nothing like the connection between a mother and a child. While pregnant with my daughters and later breastfeeding them, I enjoyed an amazing symbiosis that no one else could have with them. I was connected to the girls in a way that no one on this Earth could be and ever will be. For Daniel there is a connection between the two of us not unlike the one I have with his sisters. No I did not carry him in my womb. No he is not intimately connected to the sound of my beating heart since his conception. But he knows my heart beat and knows that when he hears it he is home and safe in his mommy’s arms. I will never, ever forget the very first time we made that connection. A person who has never made that kind of connection can’t even begin to understand just how connected adoptive parents and children are. Anyone who has never experienced the connection with biological children and adoptive children can not presume to say that they are different. For me they are very much the same. It is true that Daniel is not my biological child and while we do share many similar characteristics we do not share the same DNA. Still he was, is and always will be my child who was born in my heart on that day in January 2002 when we first met. The ink over my heart represents that emotional connection in a physical way for both of us.

Be sure to head over to Sunshine’s place because the party is still going on where we are all revealing the story behind our tats.