June 13--Gotcha Day

Today is our first anniversary of Gotcha Day.  It's the day that Juan David's social worker brought him to us and placed him in our care.  This time we knew we wouldn't have to give him back. We still had to go through Integration a week later, and then wait for the adoption to go through the court process before officially signing the adoption decree a month later, giving him his new last name. Making him officially part of our family forever.

June 13, 2013

Five years of waiting. Fighting. Gaining contact with him, losing contact with him. Grieving. Gaining contact again. Losing contact again. Finally, the day came that we didn't have to give him back. 

Here is a poem that appears in the second book (whenever I get around to finally publishing it--those issues are for another post). Seems fitting to share it here today--the day God gave him back.

I felt compelled to ask

A surrendered heart,

a tearful plea,

so stuck in my misery.

Then I heard a tender whisper,

“Child, give them back to Me.”

I let them go,

I held them high,

Open hands up to the sky.

He convinced me I could trust Him

even if I never knew why.

Life went on,

Hearts on the mend,

Yet I felt compelled to say,

“If you would do one thing for me,

let me hear from them someday.”

A letter written,

a phone call arranged,

Sweet messages soon danced between us.

Then they whisked her away, left him alone,

Our hearts left again to fuss.

A sister gone,

a brother forced to leave,

Not even a future family in sight.

“I'm all alone,” he cried out to me.

So my heart once again began to fight.

Life stood still.

How could this be?

I felt compelled to ask boldly.

“Oh, God, if it be Your will now,

would You give him back to me?”