January 18th, 2012
And baby makes eight.
An “extremely elated� MP Jeff Watson (C — Essex) and his wife Sarah were en route home Monday night with the latest addition to their family bundled in a blanket — Beatrice Grace Ulaajuk Watson, an adopted Inuit baby born on Friday.
“She’s beautiful. I can’t even tell you how thrilled we are,� Watson said in a phone interview while the trio were waiting for a connecting flight at Ottawa Airport.
It was a whirlwind first trip to the Arctic for the couple. Watson said they arrived in Iqaluit on Baffin Island last Wednesday. Having difficulty hailing a cab in the frozen capital of Nunavut, he said they missed the hospital birth on Friday by six minutes with what was a quick labour.
The couple’s five other children, ages four to 14, saw photos of their new sister emailed to the Watson home in Amherstburg on their father’s BlackBerry. Even just a month ago, they were told the adoption wasn’t a sure thing.
“The kids at home are overjoyed,� Watson said by phone before boarding for the second of three airborne legs home.
The baby’s birth mother is only 17, and Watson said she wanted to finish her education and that the immediate family wasn’t able to care for the new child. The Watsons were approached in Ottawa by a mutual acquaintance and began communicating with the Iqaluit family, and Watson said Beatrice was adopted “according to Inuit customary law.�
During their brief Arctic visit, Watson said he and his wife “met pretty much everybody in her family.� He described it as an open adoption and that Beatrice will continue to enjoy close relations with her birth mother and extended Inuit family.
Ottawa, where Watson spends half the year, has the largest Inuit community outside of Nunavut, and the Conservative MP said he wants Beatrice to be able to embrace her culture and roots. He said today’s technology and transportation ease will help his new daughter “stay connected to her biological family.�
Watson said he’s conversationally fluent in French after almost eight years in the House of Commons, and he’s now “looking forward to learning Inuktitut.� He’s hoping to get help from Beatrice’s great-grandmother, who provided the baby’s middle name Ulaajuk — pronounced “ooo-lie’-ook� — and who is an Inuktitut linguistic specialist.
“We’ve begun that journey already, reading everything we can,� he said of the sudden learning curve in adopting not only a new baby but a new native Canadian culture as well.
As for taking parental time off work, “my leave is tomorrow,� said Watson.
dschmidt@windsorstar.com or 519-255-5586
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