Adoption

Things with the adoption of A and H are moving right along!  We received word on Tuesday that H's redacted file is on its way to our agency's office, and once it's there, we'll read it and sign it.  When we read through A's back in December, it looked like this:

...so we're preparing ourselves for another heavy reading!

We've submitted other paperwork that has to do with A and H receiving extra benefits since they're siblings, and that paperwork should be filed and complete in the next 30 days.  Once that's complete, the date of adoptive placement can be scheduled... and once that's scheduled, our attorney can schedule the court date! 

We're also getting closer to H's gotcha day- it's so hard to believe it's been a year since she came into our lives!  Celebrating H's first birthday a few weeks ago left me feeling like an outsider.  I wasn't there when she was born.  I didn't hear the first cry to escape her lungs.  I didn't hold and rock her as her tiny body tried to gain weight so she could be released from the hospital.  There's so much about her beginning that I may never know.  But that doesn't diminish her birthday.  April 7th, 2011 was the beginning of H's story.  May 3rd, 2011 was the beginning of our story.  The first time I held her, rocked her, fed her, laid eyes on her.  It is the beginning of my story as a mother to a daughter.  It is the beginning of us.  And so while I have many emotions and memories tied to that day in May, we wouldn't have this day without the 7th of April- the day H entered the world!