It's been a little over a year in our journey with Kiddo and we are excited to say that the day is finally here! She is officially out of foster care and we are her legal guardians. We are her adoptive parents! A new birth certificate is on its way to our house!
Our original plan was to have an official ceremony with the judge and all but due to some miscommunication with either the lawyer or the courts, the adoption order was signed without us. It's ok, though.
We shared the official news with Prudense on Saturday and she was, of course, thrilled. We have considered her our daughter for quite a while now, so in some ways the reality of the official adoption order was a little strange. Now, however, we can make many decisions (medical, educational, etc.) without running everything by a caseworker. That's a big change! We are also thrilled that her case worker through social services recently transferred to a job as a post-adoption case worker so she will still work with us as challenges may come up.
So now we celebrate and move forward. We already know that the legal action of adoption doesn't take away many of the challenges inherent with older child adoptions. Like many children who have experienced trauma, Prudense has a lot to process and navigate. The act of adoption doesn't flip the grief off like a light switch. In fact, sometimes it can open the floodgates. Our job is to be here on the journey ahead and support her through those challenges. Since we are all navigating our own grief journeys, we will work together as a family to support each other.
Now before everyone starts asking, I'll let you know that we are going to take a break from foster parenting right now. It's important that Prudense gets a lot of our attention and that's ok by us. That being said, I think our experience with the foster care system (and namely with UMFS) has been a positive one. If you ever want to know more about our experiences, just ask. The world needs more foster parents and you don't have to be perfect or exceptional. You just need to be present.
So I hope everyone is ready because we have a year's worth of pictures to share on Facebook. We'll try not to overwhelm everyone. Thank you to everyone who has already welcomed Prudense into their lives. We are so lucky to have a welcoming family and community supporting us. Of course, given our previous experiences with "The Network", we never doubted for a second that she wouldn't be welcomed and loved.
People of the Interwebs, meet our daughter Prudense!
Our original plan was to have an official ceremony with the judge and all but due to some miscommunication with either the lawyer or the courts, the adoption order was signed without us. It's ok, though.
We shared the official news with Prudense on Saturday and she was, of course, thrilled. We have considered her our daughter for quite a while now, so in some ways the reality of the official adoption order was a little strange. Now, however, we can make many decisions (medical, educational, etc.) without running everything by a caseworker. That's a big change! We are also thrilled that her case worker through social services recently transferred to a job as a post-adoption case worker so she will still work with us as challenges may come up.
So now we celebrate and move forward. We already know that the legal action of adoption doesn't take away many of the challenges inherent with older child adoptions. Like many children who have experienced trauma, Prudense has a lot to process and navigate. The act of adoption doesn't flip the grief off like a light switch. In fact, sometimes it can open the floodgates. Our job is to be here on the journey ahead and support her through those challenges. Since we are all navigating our own grief journeys, we will work together as a family to support each other.
Now before everyone starts asking, I'll let you know that we are going to take a break from foster parenting right now. It's important that Prudense gets a lot of our attention and that's ok by us. That being said, I think our experience with the foster care system (and namely with UMFS) has been a positive one. If you ever want to know more about our experiences, just ask. The world needs more foster parents and you don't have to be perfect or exceptional. You just need to be present.
So I hope everyone is ready because we have a year's worth of pictures to share on Facebook. We'll try not to overwhelm everyone. Thank you to everyone who has already welcomed Prudense into their lives. We are so lucky to have a welcoming family and community supporting us. Of course, given our previous experiences with "The Network", we never doubted for a second that she wouldn't be welcomed and loved.
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