Adoption Day

Well it's official. Although Annabelle has always been our daughter in our hearts she is now legally Annabelle Grace Calihan. After 18 months, no more social workers or attorneys we can now move forward with our lives. Somehow since the very beginning the Lord has given me a peace about the outcome. Always knowing that she would be ours. For those who don't know the whole story, I'll start from the beginning. After finding out in late summer of 06 that I had severe endometriosis and would need surgery as well as hormone therapy in order to get my body to a normal state, I proposed the idea to Scott of becoming foster parents. I was so ready to be a mommy but to be honest I wasn't sure he would go for it. I was pleasantly surprised when he said yes without any convincing. So I began the process of finding out what to do. In most situations you have to attend group training sessions for several weeks. I knew that would never fly due to Scott's unpredictable work schedule. So we were able to find a social worker who was willing to come train us in our home. That was truly a God thing because I've found out this is pretty rare. So in October we began our training and finished in December. We didn't receive our final approval until a few weeks later which I found very frustrating at the time. Now I know it was the hand of God saving us for one special little girl. Then on January 22nd we were finally approved. That same afternoon she called back with a placement. Now first let me tell you we had said we would take one child between the ages of 9 months and 4 years so when our worker called I was surprised when she told me she had 2 children. A boy 20 months and a newborn baby girl. I told her I had to talk to Scott because this was certainly not what we signed up for. Again I was pleasantly surprised when he left the decision up to me. All I could think was I must be crazy for doing this but I had prayed for months that God would send us just the right child so I took a leap of faith and agreed to take them both. The newborn girl (Annabelle) hadn't been released form the hospital yet but they brought us her brother that very evening. By the time the social worker arrived they had discovered that he was actually a ward of the state of Nebraska. He had been removed from his mothers care there but they had chosen to flee the state with him. Although he was such a sweet little boy and I hated to see him go I know that having the both of them would have been more than I could handle. So the very next day he went back to Nebraska and on the 26th I brought Annabelle home from the hospital. She was 4 weeks premature and weighed only five pounds. She was so tiny, but so beautiful! Those first 3 months are a complete blur of sleepless nights and poopie diapers. There were times when I thought "What did I sign up for?" But we survived as all new mothers do. And then after 5 months of no parental contact the state changed it's goal to adoption. The next step was parental right termination. Now this took forever! Finally in march the TPR went through and today everything was final!!!

We went to the courthouse at 11:30 to briefly meet with the attorney before hand. We had to wait about 45 minutes for the attorney which had been appointed to represent Annabelle. He was tied up in court. When all were present we headed back to the judges chambers where we had a short but sweet proceeding. Mimi and grandpa O'Ryan, cousin Keegan, Uncle Shawn, Aunt Erika, cousins Bryce , Vaughn and Eva were all present as well as my best friend Jessica. The judge had 4 shelves of beanie babies for the kids to pick from and they all got to take one home. A sweet reminder of today. I feel so blessed that God has brought us this wonderful life to care for. So many things could have gone differently but God knew just what He was doing every step of the way.