Our Adoption Story Part 1

We’ve wanted to Adopt Selena from day one. We always knew inside that we would be traveling this path, but we also knew we had to wait for it to be in God’s plan. A month ago I approached this subject with Selena’s parents again. To my surprise both parents were willing to allow us this opportunity.

The cost of adoption is high, though we do have a good attorney who keeps his costs fairly reasonable. Still in all when all is said and done we will be looking at close to 1500.00 out of pocket. We hadn’t planned on starting the process this soon, instead we felt we would begin the process closer to Fall. God had other plans though.

Michael had mentioned our desire to a co-worker, who behind his back began to collect donations on our behalf. On Thursday Michael was presented with a check for 250.00 from all his co-workers, the exact amount we needed to get this all started. I can not even begin to express our shock, surprise and appreciation to those who contributed so graciously.

Selena has asked so many times about adoption, I suppose many of her questions started when her younger brother found himself in a new home and looking at adoption. While inside she felt like we had adopted her just by our taking her in, but she also knew it was not a true adoption.

We have a feeling she will always call us Mama and Papa or Grandma and Grandpa and that is just fine with us. She can call us anything she wants to so long as it is appropriate. I do however, know with all my heart that the true sense of family and belonging will finally be a reality for Selena, probably more then any of us can even imagine. Someday she will be able to express what this means to her, and she will be able to share those feelings herself.

I will update as we move through this process. Right now as I said earlier, we are in the beginning process, first payment made, paper work being drafted up and I am busy collecting all the information the attorney needs. We just know that the end result will be fantastic.

I will leave you with the funniest thing that Selena had to say about this adoption. As I was having fun and teasing her a bit, I said her and Uncle TJ would now be brother and sister. She came right back with, “No, TJ will always be my Uncle and that is all there is to it!” I am sure that TJ will be proud to always be her Uncle TJ.