I had to wake Little Bug up to get her dressed and ready for the big day … the day her adoption would be finalized!

Stretch!

All dressed and ready to go wearing her outfit that says, “Daddy’s Little Princess”. This picture depicts her mood well. She was ALL SMILES the entire time!

Waiting to go back to the Judge’s Chambers

A family picture with the judge

Like I said, Little Bug was all smiles. She kept cooing and smiling at the judge after everything was said and done. Maybe her way of saying, “Thank you!”?

Literally two minutes after leaving the Judge’s Chambers, Little Bug fell asleep. She wore herself out entertaining the judge!

One Happy Family on a very special day!

The finality of everything yesterday feels like the hugest victory ever.

The road that brought us to that day was certainly not easy. It was a road full of pain, sorrow and, because of God, joy.

Only the God we serve could make an ending like yesterday, which is really just the beginning of another incredible journey called parenthood.

Yesterday the judge made Little Bug be our daughter as if she had been conceived and born from my womb. And even more so, after yesterday, the fact that Little Bug wasn’t conceived in my womb and does not share any of our genetics, does not matter in the least little bit!

She is our little girl in every way imaginable. I wouldn’t trade her for anything. And I don’t wish for even a second that she was genetically like Dave and myself because then she wouldn’t be Little Bug.

And it is Little Bug that my heart adores and loves to no end.

As we were sitting in the courthouse I got to thinking how exciting it will be to go through another adoption down the road a few years. I got to thinking about a second child and wondered what the story behind that child will be.

I am forever grateful to God that He chose adoption as the way for Dave and me to build our family. Adoption is truly a miracle and I wouldn’t change one single thing that brought us to this place.

The tears, the pain, the sorrow, the grief, the disappointments … all of that fades into the distance when I look at this precious little face:

And, you know, I can’t go anywhere without someone telling me my daughter looks just like me or her Daddy.

This week Dave and I were at Wal-Mart. As we were checking out, the cashier said, “Awww. She looks just like her Mama.”

I just smiled and thought, Yep, we have a God who is concerned with every single detail in the story of our lives. How big is our God that He could orchestrate something so huge as an adoption and still see to the fine detail of making this little girl favor her adoptive parents?

What a mighty God we serve!

- Elaine