WE ARE FAMILY!!!! . . . July 24, 2011

WOW!!!  What an amazing, wonderful, emotional, exhausting, and fabulous day!!!  We feel so blessed and so thankful to God, for He has done great things!

We woke up early and went to get Janice from her foster family.  The time set for us to pick her up was 10am, and we wanted to be sure to be on time.  That's always been a funny thing - leaving in plenty of time so as not to be late, but not wanting to be too early either - a little tricky at times.  We had a great ride over together and enjoyed our time.  As we began the drive on her street, the nerves hit us hard.  I realized that this was it!!!  We were going to get her today forever!  I can still feel the butterflies that I felt at that moment.  Scott was talking about it as we drove up her drive.  We began realizing even more how hard this must be for her and wondered how the foster family was doing this morning.

The kids wanted to jump out of the car and run to the door, and we had to remind them to walk and go slowly.  We knocked on the door, and the foster mom answered the door along with the two younger foster children she has in their home (2 and 5 yrs. old and so cute).  They both seemed happy to see us, and the 2 year old little guy gave me a leg hug that was so sweet and I thanked him!  At first, we didn't see Janice but heard people playing a game in the kitchen.  The foster mom explained that it had been an emotional morning and that it would be good to take it slow.  She said that Janice couldn't stomach breakfast, so she had some snacks to send along with us.  I told her I understood and we would do our best to take the day slow and see how she's doing.  I asked her how camp went, and she said it was great!  This was her third year attending, and they all knew her well and loved her.  She had the same counselor this year, and had a great time!  I was so glad to hear this news!

When Janice came over, she looked a little shy and emotionally worn a bit, and I gave her a hug.  Her eyes looked good though and she seemed as comfortable as she could be.  We saw a boy and his mom there, and I asked who they were.  It was her close friend Gabe from school and his mom, and his mom had tears in her eyes.  She really loved Janice and it was hard to see her go.  It was hard for her to see her son's friend leave as well.  I told them we had heard so much about Gabe, and we were thrilled to meet him.  We all talked for a short while, and at one point, I remember my voice showing that I was on the verge of crying.  Janice was very calm, but looked over at me to see if I was ok.  The emotions in the room were so strong from everyone.  We then took her luggage to the car.  I had a small gift for Janice to give the two younger foster kids as a goodbye present (I so felt for these sweet little ones that would lose another person out of their little lives and was thankful the foster mom was ok with Janice giving them a small gift), so I showed them quickly to Janice and she took them in.  We held back a bit so she could say her last goodbyes.  Then we went to the door and gave hugs to her foster family, as well as her friend Gabe and his mom.  I thanked them for loving Janice and felt their pain in such a real way!  I told Gabe's mom that I would love to have their information to keep in touch and they said it was in a card they had given Janice.  He also made her a neat bracelet and had one for himself as well.  You could tell they had a neat friendship!

When we got back to the van, we noticed that there was quite a bit of antifreeze leaking from under the van and dripping down the driveway.  I tried not to worry, and had to pray right then.  All I could think is that this would not be a great day to get stuck in their driveway, or to get stuck on the way home (on a Sunday in the middle of an area where we didn't know anyone).  Scott thought we would be ok, and would get it checked out tomorrow.  I was thankful for his faith and tried to trust (even while knowing we would be going through a tunnel and over the Bay Bridge in San Francisco on our way home).

We all got in the van, and it felt so good!  She seemed happy to be with us, yet I wondered if she was sad.  We asked her about her week at camp, and she said that she had so much fun!  She talked about really enjoying the zip line!  The boys had both done that, so they got a good conversation going.  Things seemed to go really smoothly on our trip to eat lunch.  We decided to go to one of our favorite vacation areas and shopped at Ikea for an item for the girls new room (currently pink and green, soon to be blue and green).  Then we went to P.F. Chang's, of course, for our first family dinner (officially)!  They gave the kids wiki sticks and she made me a twisted ring.  I wore it all day with great joy :)!  We talked about our plans for the day, and I told her that we were going to go to see Cars 2 and then head back to our vacation spot in Moss Beach and have a celebration for her!  (Ashley had briefly spilled the beans already, so we went with it)!  We told her we had a cake, and someone else mentioned a big balloon, and we told her we had some presents for her as well.  She said, "Wow, I've never had a family like this before!"  I told her we were so happy to have her in our family and wanted to celebrate!

As the appetizers were served, it was so cool that she looked over at me and said, "Are we going to pray?"  Scott said yes, of course, and we thanked God for our food.  I held her hand as Scott thanked God that she was with us!  As we started eating lunch, she said, "I just have to tell you I'm not feeling very hungry and feel a little dizzy."  I told her I completely understood (I had actually felt the same way two nights before after eating dinner and had to lay down that evening), and I told her that she didn't have to eat.  She said she would try.  I told her if she was feeling bad, we could rest or do whatever she needed.  As lunch continued, she would at times lay her head on my shoulder and just rest, and soon she began to feel better and we had some fun laughter at the table.  We took a couple of pictures as we left (one where we tried to look like the statue guy above us, and we almost all lost it as we held the pose)!

She seemed better, so we walked around a bit to do a little shopping.  At one store, we were able to get the boys and her some new school shoes so that was great.  At another store, I looked at her and asked if she was doing ok with all of this, and she said, "I'm really excited!"  That made me feel so much better and I gave her a good hug!  As we walked back to the car, it was so fun to see all four kids walking and hanging out in front of us!  It was great to see her and Ashley holding hands and "being sisters."  It was so nice to have her walk closely to me at times and just know she was really "with us!"

Thankfully, we didn't see anymore major leakage and the van kept going!  We headed to a really nice theatre closer to Moss Beach and watched Cars 2 together.  We had a good time and I was glad we could all just sit and relax together.  We finally got back to our vacation home and showed her around.  She was so excited!  The boys brought her luggage in and we  said "hi" to the dogs.  Soon after she asked, "Can we open the presents now?!"  I said sure and we went in to watch her.  She opened her card first and read it.  This is what it said:
"I always want you to remember there is no one else like you.  You have gifts that only you can give the world.  You have blessings others can only receive through you.  The Lord designed every detail of who you are.  He cares about you so much, and I care about you too.  You are special, you are loved, you are you - and the world is blessed to have you in it!  Then we added . . . and now our family is blessed to have you in it!  We love you, Dad, Mom, Austin, Alec, Ashley and Bogey.  It also had the verse "God saw all that He had made and it was very good." Genesis 1:31

Ashley had gotten a picture Bible at the church we visited the night before and wanted to give it to Janice, so that was the first gift.  We got her some blue and yellow nail polish (school colors and blue is her favorite anyhow), along with a little blue hand sanitizer thing she can put on her backpack.  Then she opened a bag with some "Forever Sunshine" Bath and Body cream, bubble bath, and spray (I had put some of the cream on her on an earlier visit and she said she liked it).  She loved the spray.  There was also a really sweet bear that had a shirt that said "Hug me" and it talked each time she hugged him with really cute sayings.  Lastly, she opened the book with each of us reading part of it to her.  She seemed to really like everything, and we so enjoyed giving her a little something on this special day!

Soon after, we decided to take the dogs for a walk and go close to the ocean.  She and the boys hiked down this one hill and saw some seals in the water.  We walked for a bit longer and headed back to the house.  We just relaxed for awhile and I worked on a light dinner with some pasta, fruit and vegetables.  While I was cooking, she hung out some of the time with me in the kitchen.  She asked, "So did you guys already adopt me?"  I said "yes and no."  She looked puzzled.  I explained that yes, we are adopting you and keeping you, but that the law makes this process take a little bit of time.  So while it's not finalized with the courts, we are keeping you!  She seemed good with that answer.  She also mentioned again that it's nice to call me "Mom."  I told her I loved it too and that the kids were excited about calling her sister if she was ok with that.  She said she was, and I told her we had been so excited about it all fo awhile, but wanted to be sure she was comfortable with everything!  She said she was.  I asked her and Ashley to go ahead and set the table, and she was happy to do it.  I wanted her to feel part of the family!  We all ate together in the dining room, and every chair was filled!  She ate a good dinner and was feeling much better!  I was so thankful we wouldn't have to drop her off and get her again.  I could tell that it was wearing on her so much (and on us as well).

After dinner, we sat together and watched a movie called "Hachi" that she had seen at the Christian bookstore on one of our visits.  It's a movie about a dog that was extremely loyal to his owner and was based on a true story.  The dog was lost and the man found the dog, and the dog stayed by his side continually!  At one point in the movie, the family is having their picture taken for a wedding and the dog got in the picture.  I mentioned it to Janice and she said, "well, he's part of the family . . . just like I'm part of a family now."  Wow, the emotions of this day were just amazing!  The owner of the dog has a heart attack in the movie and dies, but the dog continues to be loyal and goes to the train station each day like he did before looking for his master.  The movie talks about how we should always remember those that are special in our lives.  I too want Janice to always remember those that have played a special part in her life.  But the movie was pretty sad, and I had tears quite a few times.  While we watched it, Janice laid her head on my shoulder and Ashley on Janice's shoulder as we huddled under a blanket on the couch.  It was great to be close and I realized how much love she is ready to have and give.  She would often be gently putting her hands through Ashley's hair and just being so sweet!  It was a very special time!

We had our cake after that, and we had 6 candles to celebrate that we now had 6 in our family.  We couldn't figure out what to sing - Happy Birthday didn't seem right, Happy Adoption to you didn't fit either, so we all just said "Happy Family Day" and each blew out a candle.  Then we decided to watch a Cosby show to finish the night on a happier note.  We went up with the kids to read together and say goodnight.  It was great getting to give Janice a hug and kiss on the cheek and tell her "I loved her."  She seemed so ready to be loved!!!

Scott and I talked about the day and how much we were ready to love her, how emotional the day had been, how much the kids loved her, and how much wisdom we would need as we desire to raise her and teach her the things of God!  We so want to be loving and gradual and want her to feel safe and secure.  We felt so thankful to have her with us and amazed at how God had brought her into our home!  This was a much different type of pregnancy than I have ever experienced, and while the physical pain was not present, the emotional experience has been far greater than I have ever felt before!  I so long to parent her with wisdom and love!  What an amazing day!  Thank you LORD!