Adoption Family Day

Three years ago today Jason and I were up at 3:45AM reviewing our information for court. 3:45. I actually sent an e-mail home at 4:30 to ask my mom how to cook a whole chicken on the stove top. Such important information needed.

Mom sent an e-mail back pretty quick and we started the chicken.

Thus began our day on June 20, 2008.

According to my 'book' Oksana picked us up that morning at 8:15. We zoomed off to downtown Vlad and arrived at the court house at 8:55. after waiting for 35 minutes we were told that our judge was going to be a little late due to a fellow judge having a birthday. Our judge had to wait til the other judge got in for the day so she could wish her a happy birthday.

She arrived at 9:30. And the butterflies in my tummy multiplied thirty-fold.

The first question was directed to me, and I couldn't remember the answer. Oops. Thankfully, she laughed and moved on to the next topic...which was to wish me a happy birthday...which had been the day before.

Court lasted a mere 45 minutes and we became the parents of two children, just like that. Our family doubled in size. We were thrilled, but were a little clueless as to what we were getting ourselves into. :)

Immediately after court we raced to the baby home that had been Addie's home for 2 years. We had to be there by noon as the director was leaving and we wouldn't be able to pick Addie up if the director wasn't there.

The children were all outside playing when we pulled in the drive. Right away we spotted our little lady, talking on her cell phone a mile a minute. That part hasn't changed. ;) We said her name, Zhanna, and she turned and darted in our direction.

At that point she was happy to see us, but it only took a few hours til she no longer was as impressed with her new family.

Thus began our time as a family of three. Will was adopted the same day, but he didn't actually join our family til 11 days after court.

So. Today is Addie's Family Day. Boy, has she been excited.

If you ask her why Family Day is so important, she will look at you with a 'hello?' expression on her face and say, "Because it's the day I got a family!!"

She'll also tack on that she'll get presents and a cake, but that's not the whole point, of course. The point is that our children understand that they have a forever family.

For the past week, the countdown has been on. Yesterday morning she was up at 6:51 to tell her daddy happy fathers day and to tell me happy birthday. The next thing out of her mouth was, "Tomorrow is my Family Day!!!"

She's on cloud nine. First thing this morning she received her gifts. It's kind of like a second birthday. And really, that's what it is. Most of us have one birthday. One all-inclusive day that marks the day we were born and also the day that we joined our forever family. One day.

She has a thing for fwop-fwips.

And her very first leap pad...which happened to come with 15 books and four leap pads from the local consignment store. For six dollars. And they all work great. That's my kind of gift.

Our children have two special days a year. The day they were born to their Russian mommy and this day, the day they were 'born' into our family.

They don't complain.

Frankly, I like this day the best. Sure, the day they were born is a very important day. Their birth moms chose to give them life. Their birthdays are days that we spend talking about their birth moms. But their
birth-days are not days that we remember. I can't sit down with them and tell them all about the weather that day or what time they were born. I can't whip out the photo albums of when they were tiny babies. I can't tell about all the family members who came to visit them in the hospital. I can't tell them about their squeaky little newborn cries. I can't tell them about the first time they smiled or the first time they rolled over.

This day? Family day? I can talk about my memories. We can cuddle up in the lazy-boy with a thick photo album open on our laps. We can talk about what she was doing when we showed up at her baby home to take her with us. We can tell her how she was scared to go with us, yet scared even more when we took her up to her room for a group picture with all her little buddies. We can tell her how she thought she was going to have to stay there once again while we left. We can tell her about her first ride in a car with us. We can talk about those first few nights when she cried and cried and wouldn't go to sleep til well after midnight.

Then we can pull out the next album and talk about how she was one year later....

and the next year....

and this year.

And we can be amazed all over again at what an awesome God we serve. What an awesome God. He and He alone is the one who makes it all possible. He alone can orchestrate a family when they live thousands of miles apart. He alone has the power to blend us together so that most people would never know that our children weren't actually born to us.

What a blessing this little girl has been to our family. Sure, she also can be a headache :) but the blessings far out-weigh the headaches.

Every day she shows a little more personality. Every day we think back to how she used to be....back to the day when we wondered if she would ever be a 'normal' child. Back to the days when she spent hours screaming. Back to the days when she didn't want anything to do with us.

We think and we compare.

Now? She is delighted to be our daughter. She loves to sit on our laps...she used to fight us tooth and nail when we held her. She loves to curl up with her pillow and drift off to sleep...she used to rock herself violently to get to sleep. She loves to reply with quick little comebacks just to make us laugh....she used to require much thought before she could answer at all. She loves to give gifts to others....she used to scream and throw a little fit when anyone other than she received a gift.

We have been beyond blessed with our little girl and I can only pray that with God's help we can raise her to be a godly young woman.