After waiting 12 & 1/2 years for a family to find her, October 2017 is when Mila's adoption process officially started. And now, February 2021, all the paperwork has been completed. All the money has been paid. All the reports have been filed. We are DONE.
Every country requires different post adoption follow up. Isaac's home country required five years of follow up reports; Mila's only two. Of course, Covid complicated the paperwork timeline that was technically supposed to end last October but we had our final social work visit, masks and all, today and declared a good family fit for Princess Mila of Albania (guess who gave herself that name after watching The Princess Diaries?! 😜)
While the official process is completed, we've just taken the first lap in the pursuit of Mila's heart. She--WE--have come SO FAR in the last two and a half years! I'm exhausted just thinking of our first nine months together; that was HARD work. The work to win her trust and offer healing to her little heart is no less hard now, but there are more and more moments of respite and delight that we just simply did not experience in that first year. We can joke about things now and share things as a family that we all enjoy. We can negotiate the terms of a movie night or what music is played in the car without fear of rejection and retaliation. Her heart is beginning to feel safe in the consistency of her family's embrace. So we keep pursuing. We keep loving. We keep declaring that she is safe and loved and wanted, even when Momma says 'try it again, this time with a soft voice and a please, please' because Grace says--this place is a safe place to make mistakes, and Hope says--that same unending grace will be here for us all tomorrow. THAT is the adoption journey. <3
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