It's Offical...

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.
1 Samuel 1:27

A little over 4 months ago our lives changed forever. The word change seems too small for what really happened…transformed describes it better. One, seemingly normal, Thursday afternoon, 12 noon on March 20th to be exact, we received the phone call that all adopting parents wait not so patiently for. The voice of our case worker on the other end said, “Your son is ready for you.” I didn’t know if I should shout for joy or cry out of shock and happiness. I cried… and called Marcus, “Come home now…we have to go to Columbia…We have a boy.” It took several repeats of that statement and picking Seth up from the hospital for him to believe me. The transformation happened in 6 hours – notified at noon and held him in our arms by 6 pm! That is a day we will never forget.

Things are very different for parents who adopt verses those who can have biological children. For biological parents, you are never interviewed – questioned of everything in your past that could affect your ability to parent well or not, you home is never inspected, and once you hold your child in your arms, count all the fingers and toes, and look into their beautiful eyes, biological parents never have a lingering question of “What if something goes wrong? What if the biological father shows up?” So for us the next most important day after bringing Seth home from the hospital was his court date for finalization.

The day was full of anxiety, excitement and in the end, relief and peace. We didn’t expect any surprises. Our lawyer was as thorough as they come, prepared us for every question and possibility. But you can’t help but to question or think something will go wrong or be rescheduled, especially after our journey. But God knew what we needed and things absolutely could not have gone smoother. It was pretty special having family there to celebrate with afterwards too. And what an incredible anniversary present. Today we are official!