Tuesday: Adoption Day!

I am not sure what was going on in the rest of the world Tuesday...for that matter, I haven't known what is going on in the rest of the world for days....Tuesday morning, I awoke early with Emma. She had nor gone to sleep her first night until almost midnight, long after her daddy had fallen into a deep sleep. It was an ea.ry morning appointment with the welfare institute. When we arrived where we had received our little ones only a day before we entered with little ones we felt we had known much longer than 24 hrs. The building was empty this morning. So different than the wall to people crowded in the hallways and crevices of each corridor, sitting, napping or playing with their new babies. There were nit the noisy sounds of cries and laughter...it was quiet except for an occasional echo from our babies' sounds. We lined up quickly for the family photo for the official adoption registration. Officially, it is for parents with the newly adopted child. We knew this was going to cause a bit of heartache fir a certain big sister. So, falling the official one Gracie joined us for our new family photo. That's when it hit me. We were now a family of four...well, we were moments away from officially being a family of four. We were quickly shepherded in tot the registrars office where the legal proceeding for the adoption take place. It was of course the same room we had been in 7 years ago. And although I only sent two days at that clinic 7 ago I knew it so well. We sat once again at the tab.e with the same registrar and she looked over our paperowork. She paused to look up at Emma and Gracie and said with such surprise that they looked alike...so much alike. And they do. Gracie took great pride in this of course. The registrar asked her where she was from and she told her. It was a bit surreal to watch Gracie carry on a little conversation with the woman who made her adoption official. She looked over the paperwork and said, "are you happy with her? Will you promise to love her, care for her and never abandon her? ". We said that we promised. Yes, we live her. And then with that we placed our thumb prints in the red ink and signed the adoption papers and then little emma's tiny foot was placed in ink and sealed the deal. Gracie, sitting next to us began to get tearful. We had promised her she would be able to be a part if the moment... Another paper...our souvenir, we had wanted to place her fingerprint in. The. The registrar did. Something so beautiful. She took Gracie's hand and placed it in the ink and then on the back of the paperwork for us, next to her sister footprint she brought her hand..but before placing it on the paper she said, "do you promise to love her and be a good big sister". And Gracie said, yes.