I just realized that it has been MONTHS since I last posted anything on our process...This year has been full of ups and a few downs, but all in all, we have emerged from it as a beautiful, happy family.
Our kiddo's "Gotcha Day" was January 27, 2012. I never thought it would be a day quite so full of emotion, nor did I realize how much my life would change. Bringing her home for good was so much different than just a visit. There were school arrangements to be made, doctors appointments to schedule, workers to deal with, all on top of building and maintaining our foundation to create a safe and loving family for her to be part of. At times, it was difficult at best, but we managed to love her and each other through it all. I have learned that the things you expect to be easy will be hard, and the things you expect to be hard will be easy. The most important thing I have learned is that it's the little things that mean the most. For example, over the summer, our girl wrote us a silly little note because she couldn't sleep...it's written in marker and illustrated with bright colors...I love it so much. Every time I look at it, I smile.
This year is our little girl's senior year already. I feel like we just got her and we are now helping her prepare to spread her wings and fly out into the world of college and adult life. The day to day stuff and smaller milestones keep us distracted mostly from the reality that is High School Graduation in just a few months. As we prepare for Homecoming and college/university tours, the reality sinks in a little more. The comfort from all of it though is knowing that she is our kiddo and we are her parents. She knows we love her, want her, and will always be there for her. When we finalized on August 20, 2012, it was just a formality at that point. As I have said before, it was like she had always been here...always had been part of our lives. I can't wait to see what the next chapter holds for us as we watch her continue to grow and mature into the incredible woman that she is becoming.
Motherhood...isn't it grand! :)
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Visits and Time as a Family
I didn't realize how long it has been since posting. Things have been BUSY to say the least, but busy in a very, very good way.
As my last post stated...we were going to get to see our girl the week of Thanksgiving for our first "supervised visit" with her. It basically consisted of us meeting at a park for a picnic and we ended up having more people there than we did at her full disclosure meeting. It was nice to have the opportunity to spend time getting to know our kiddo and also talking to some of the people who have been involved in her life. We figured we would have more supervised visits, but to our pleasant surprise, they allowed us to start having unsupervised visits beginning the first week of December! After a few of those, we got to have her come home for a weekend visit and then stay for an entire week over Christmas.
I have to break off from my talk of our visits to say how incredible Christmas was and how natural it has felt to have her home when she's been home. We made many new traditions as a family for the holidays, including but not limited to opening our Christmas gifts at exactly 12:01 Christmas morning (us "old folks" took a nap before this happened), and then went to breakfast at Denny's before passing out in a blissful, Christmas joy-filled sleep.
Our kiddo just seems to fit so well in our family. We've painted her room and allowed her to pick out her own stuff for her bedroom (furniture, decor, etc), because we want her to feel welcome in her own space. She has such a quick wit and we LOVE her humor. I don't know that we've laughed so hard for so long in years! We have truly been blessed and can hardly wait until she comes to live with us forever.
We are still waiting for her workers to let us know about placement, but we are hopeful that she will be coming home soon. For now, we have her every weekend, which means a lot of miles on/in the car (it's 4 hours one way to see her), but it's all TOTALLY worth it. Mama S and I both just adore her and it's so wonderful to be a family. I just hope that we can continue to be the family she hopes for and that we are able to meet her needs (not just the physical ones, but the emotional ones too).
That's all for now. I've got a load of her laundry to finish up (spoken like a true mom, haha) and stuff to do before I can go get her tomorrow. I am SO thankful that one of her workers has been willing to meet us half way for visits, so at least the trip isn't 8 hours. Even if it was, it would still be worth it!
As my last post stated...we were going to get to see our girl the week of Thanksgiving for our first "supervised visit" with her. It basically consisted of us meeting at a park for a picnic and we ended up having more people there than we did at her full disclosure meeting. It was nice to have the opportunity to spend time getting to know our kiddo and also talking to some of the people who have been involved in her life. We figured we would have more supervised visits, but to our pleasant surprise, they allowed us to start having unsupervised visits beginning the first week of December! After a few of those, we got to have her come home for a weekend visit and then stay for an entire week over Christmas.
I have to break off from my talk of our visits to say how incredible Christmas was and how natural it has felt to have her home when she's been home. We made many new traditions as a family for the holidays, including but not limited to opening our Christmas gifts at exactly 12:01 Christmas morning (us "old folks" took a nap before this happened), and then went to breakfast at Denny's before passing out in a blissful, Christmas joy-filled sleep.
Our kiddo just seems to fit so well in our family. We've painted her room and allowed her to pick out her own stuff for her bedroom (furniture, decor, etc), because we want her to feel welcome in her own space. She has such a quick wit and we LOVE her humor. I don't know that we've laughed so hard for so long in years! We have truly been blessed and can hardly wait until she comes to live with us forever.
We are still waiting for her workers to let us know about placement, but we are hopeful that she will be coming home soon. For now, we have her every weekend, which means a lot of miles on/in the car (it's 4 hours one way to see her), but it's all TOTALLY worth it. Mama S and I both just adore her and it's so wonderful to be a family. I just hope that we can continue to be the family she hopes for and that we are able to meet her needs (not just the physical ones, but the emotional ones too).
That's all for now. I've got a load of her laundry to finish up (spoken like a true mom, haha) and stuff to do before I can go get her tomorrow. I am SO thankful that one of her workers has been willing to meet us half way for visits, so at least the trip isn't 8 hours. Even if it was, it would still be worth it!
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