Bringing Families Together

This post was contributed by Jess Fields, former AmeriCorps Museum Educator.

One morning I saw a young woman pacing by the entrance as I arrived at the Museum. She seemed nervous. After we opened, a family arrived with their little boy. He rushed to play at the light wall and dome in Play Power. The parents watched him and checked their watches. When the young woman from outside finally entered the Museum, she spotted the couple and they approached her with warm, nervous smiles. The boy continued his play while the adults talked softly. Finally the mother called the boy over and told him, “I want you to meet someone very special.”

The boy smiled and said “Hi!” “Hi,” said the young woman as she nervously bent over to talk to him. “Hey I wanna show you something!,” the boy said. He took her hand and they headed into Water Ways together. The parents looked on, holding hands.

“Your son is beautiful,” I said to them. “How old is he?” “Thank you,” the mother said. “He'll be 3 in a few months. He really loves it here. We picked this place together. Today is the first day he meets his birth mother – we wanted it to be somewhere familiar to him.”

“That's so wonderful,” I said. “We were afraid she wouldn't show up,” the father sighed. “She was really late.” I smiled. “She's been here since we opened, she was pacing outside of the building. I think she was nervous.” “So are we,” the mother said, “but we feel like everyone needs as much love as they can get, all of us, so this was the best decision for our family.”

The little boy cheered in the next room as his birth mother pumped water out of a tube in the tank. They both laughed and it echoed to fill the room. The parents smiled, said thank you and wandered in to enjoy their special day, together.