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RE-Adoption Day
Five years ago we started our adoptions in China. Gotcha Day or Family Day, as people refer to them, happen the day you meet your child. Most of the time you travel to the Registration Office or some other official building. Once we met a child in our hotel room. Sometimes we were alone and sometimes we waited with many other families. It’s a nerve wracking time as you wait for them to show up with your children. You anxiously wait for your child to walk in the door. You see the face you’ve been staring at in pictures for months and you wait for them to bring your child to you. I can not watch a video of those moments without tearing up. It instantly makes my heart race and I feel just like I was there. It’s an amazing feeling for the parents who meet their children. This is the end of their adoption journey to their child.
But for the child it is exactly the opposite. Sometimes the child has only just heard about you because the orphanage director wanted to protect their hearts because sometimes parents stop the adoption process right before the travel. Sometimes they were too young to understand. Sometimes they have been prepared as well as can be expected. Sometimes the children were thrown at you like they didn’t even matter. Sometimes they were handed over carefully.
Those moments are a blur for us and the most scary time of their lives for the children. They walk into a building with people that have cared for them for years and they leave with perfect strangers. Sometimes there was crying, sometimes there was total shutdown, sometimes with the older kids there was nervous laughter or no words at all. After you sign all your paperwork, you head to the hotel room and get to know your new child. You have 24 hours to decide if you want to complete the adoption. Can you imagine what this is like for them?
24 hours later you go back to the same room to sign your official papers. If the child hasn’t been prepared or isn’t old enough to understand, they may think you are taking them back.
Landing at home after the couple weeks in China was another eye-opening moment. I have to admit that I have taken for granted what it means to be an American. What it means to be free. Those moments when you get off the plane and your children are granted citizenship are a beautiful thing. It made citizenship more dear for me. The way our older girls acted when receiving their Certificate of Citizenship is something I will never forget. I will never take being a citizen for granted again.
In honor of their citizenship and how proud they are of it, we put in a flag pole and let them raise it on Adoption Day.
As the years went by we realized that looking back on the pictures of their scared little faces on those first days was a good/bad memory. We wanted them to have a happy day to celebrate. Now they know what family means. Now they can yell their “yeses” to the world that they do want a mama and daddy. So we set out to readopt as a family. We talked about it and prayed about it. We picked Hope’s Adoption Day so they would all share the same day.
The morning of Adoption Day I sat them all in front of me and read them their story. With our older kids, I would write them a poem each year on their birthday. They also had a journal, a calendar of their first year, and more pictures than you can even imagine. I realized how sad it is for our kids to not have these things. They don’t have the happy stories of their birth or any of the information of our bio kids.
For our older kiddos, they don’t have the stories of when they first walked, or when they lost their first tooth. There is so much information missing. So I decided to make them a book about how we fell in love with them and what it was like before we traveled and included any pictures that we had of them before. They love their stories and ask to hear them over and over again. Now they will have them in print to read whenever they want.
We had pictures taken at the courthouse by our friend Rachel. She can always get them to smile.
We entered the courtroom with a few extended family members and waited for the judge.
All the kiddos were on the front row looking dapper in their red/white/blue American colors that they chose to wear.
Our lawyer and friend, Marcy, brought them the sweetest gifts. Hats for the boys and flowers for the girl’s hair. There were red/white/blue mustaches and light up toys and bracelets.
My brother Tim and his family were all decked out too. Tim had the best outfit.
It was really very simple. The judge walked in. We all stood. Marcy told them about all the paperwork that had been filed. He said no testimony was necessary and pronounced them all adopted. We took a picture with the judge and that was that. I’m sure Rachel will have a better picture but this was the only one I had. 🙂
As they left the courtroom the court room assistant let them each pick out a beanie baby. They were tickled with their new gifts.
We went home to prepare for our party. We invited a few friends and family over to help celebrate with the kids. It was a beautiful evening.
This day was everything we had hoped it would be. The day was full of happy memories. They had so much fun with their friends and family.
Thank you to everyone who was there in thought and those who were able to show up. Thank you to all our friends who prayed for and with us during these trips. Thank you so much. We truly appreciate it.