Limber Up

Sonalika's referral picture.
his is the one that we had to sign across her face.

Have I mentioned that we are adopting again? Yes, it feels about that surreal to us too. Naturally one leans on any bit of experience they possess and in our case that is the adoption story created while adding our little munchkin, Devi. Now she is our reality check, reminding us daily about the needs that Sonalika will have...being a baby and all. Dev is forever coming up with things that they can do together, what she can teach her, where Sonalika will sit, sleep, ride etc. etc. Why, this second daughter will barely need Pat and I because she will have a doting little mother in Devi...although Dev did announce in the restroom at Costco the other day after observing a mother caring for her child on the changing table that “she is not used to changing diapers so she will be unable to do that for Treya when she comes home”.

Truth of the matter is that with both children, that slap of reality came when I held each of their child study reports in my hands and read them. These are the well used, wrinkled, stained and fading pages that contain the forms and statements made and filled out by those who have cared for them in India since the day they arrived at the facility that took them in. For Devi it was a healthy stack with hand punched holes strung together with string; for Treya only 8 or 9 pages, stapled album-style down the spine, but contained within are the few sentences of circumstance that provide the path for God to bring us together.

Excited that we were finally signing Sonalika’s life into ours, we limbered up our phalanges and began to autograph. The first of many signatures are required to go across the photograph of our daughter’s face. I can’t tell you how hard that is to do! Then, just as unexplainable as the first time, I became overwhelmed and began to weep. I can’t explain this explosion of emotion, other than to say that inside my head a collision of huge proportion was occurring: the joy over adding a daughter to our family after such a long wait, colliding with the anguish and sorrow that Sonalika’s birth mother must have faced as I realize and feel the magnitude of her decisions. If only there were a way to comfort her, to let her know that her flesh and blood is loved and cared for deeply, possibly deeper than if we were actually biologically connected. This is something as adoptive parents, that we think and pray for often.

Tonight, with the help of our neighbors, the rest of the papers will be witnessed and notarized, then off to the Secretary of State to be apostiled. Their last trip through the postal service via our agency, will take them to India, where they will eventually land on the desk of a judge, whom we hope is sympathetic to our cause. It is here that our documents will be scrutinized and finally he or she will give the green light of guardianship! Soon thereafter, her Visa and passport will be issued with an estimated time until travel of around 6 to 8 months from now. Geez...that seems a long time to wait and to hang onto the few funny translations from Marathi to English in her child study, like the fact that Sonalika has "black hairs and chubby chick" or that she currently drinks "fresh beffelows milk".

Sharing our good news with friends.

To busy ourselves, we have had introductions to make, a quilt to sew, a life book to begin and a mountain of slightly used baby things that we will need to learn to share :)

Amid these preparations we continue to play dress up hone our egg cracking skills, and answer the interesting questions that pop up on a daily basis like, “Where does Mother Nature live?” and “Why is she so mad?”