"A Permanent Part of our Family"

I have finished getting all our paperwork together and will be shipping it off on Monday! It really wasn't too bad, just a bunch of forms to sign and have notarized, and then getting together copies of our W-2's, taxes, and recent pay stubs. We also both had to get employment letters. I am not sure why I need one since I won't be working, but oh well. I don't bother questioning why we have to do certain things - I think it is best just to do what is asked. Questioning everything can only allow bitterness to creep into your heart in my opinion. The trickiest part for me was getting quality pictures of the rooms in our homes. My camera doesn't take great indoor photos, so that was the first issue. I uploaded the pictures to CVS online to have them printed and first they weren't  ready when they said they would be and then  they came out horribly - dark and they had cropped off way too much from the bottom of each photo. So disappointing! I will never use CVS's online photo service again. I finally managed to retake some photos after playing around with my camera and then I printed them myself on our printer at home with photo paper. Hopefully, they are good enough. Our bank also left out an apostrophe and a "s" at the end of our adoption agencies name when they issued the check. I am just hoping and praying it will be okay and everything else is in order.

Most of the paperwork was pretty basic stuff (at least for adoption), post placement, vaccines, acceptance, etc. But the form below made my heart soar when I read the words "Adoptive parent(s) intend to legally adopt the Child and have him/her become a permanent part of their family."

I actually started crying when I read those words, I was so overcome by them. This is really happening isn't it?! We have a son who will become a permanent part of our family! It is still hard for me to believe sometimes.

We have a Referral!!!!!!!

Introducing.......

Our son Joshua JoonSeo

Joshua - Means "YAHWEH is salvation" or "The LORD saves"

JoonSeo - Means "Bright" and "Benevolent"

Psalm 113

Praise the LORD.
       Praise, O servants of the LORD,
       praise the name of the LORD.

Let the name of the LORD be praised,
       both now and forevermore.

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
       the name of the LORD is to be praised.

The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
       his glory above the heavens.

Who is like the LORD our God,
       the One who sits enthroned on high,

who stoops down to look
       on the heavens and the earth?

He raises the poor from the dust
       and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

he seats them with princes,
       with the princes of their people.

He settles the barren woman in her home
       as a happy mother of children.

Praise the LORD.

We got the call on August 30th after waiting only 5 months. After getting the information medically reviewed (required by our agency) and then waiting for some missing test results, we officially accepted the referral last Friday September 17th! I was able to share the news with my family that evening. This past week has been super busy as I have prepared the acceptance paperwork and took photos of our house to send to our agency. Everything should be sent off by the end of this week!

 

We are so excited!

Adopted

Before I left for Phoenix, John and I watched the movie Adopted. You can watch the trailer below:



I highly recommend this movie to anyone involved in adoption. At the beginning of the movie, there was a quote from "Beyond Good Intentions" by Cheri Register. It said,

"The joy and the tragedy coexist. That is the paradox of adoption, and we are all caught up in it."

It was so validating to see this quote. So often over these last few months, I have wanted to write about what I am learning about adoption (and I still hope to do so), but I haven't been able to. I think this is what I have been wrestling with - in adoption joy and sorrow intermingle - and this is very different from the view of adoption many have. I think many people see the positive side of adoption (and there is much that is wonderful) and fail to see that there are losses, especially for birthparents and adoptees. It has been quite a process to begin embracing both the joy and sorrow of adoption and realizing that they can and do coexist. I have always thought that you either have joy or sorrow, and have done everything I can to avoid sorrow and control the losses in my life (as if I can control them). Through this process, I am become much more accepting of the fact that tragedy and sorrow are unavoidable in life. They will both be part of our child's life, and my life, and there is nothing I can do to change this. And that is okay. Because there will also be joy.