Ruby's Adoption Day

Today is not just any day.

It is Ruby Grace's Adoption Day.

We've had her since birth. We're really lucky like that.

But that doesn't mean these four and a half years of waiting was easy. At all.

There were days of doubt where we weren't sure if she was forever going to be ours. There were days of sickness where I wondered if I'd always be the one taking care of her...there for her in the night...rocking her to sleep. There were moments of sheer terror...moments where we love her so much but aren't sure what the future holds.

 

There were moments/hours/days/weeks of peace. Peace that I didn't understand, but peace that I so desperately needed. And then just when we thought our journey was almost done, a new wrench would be thrown in to the mix. And the flood of uncertainty would be overwhelming us once again.

 

She will love being the lime-light. She thinks everyone who she knows (at all) will be in attendance at some point on her day. She calls this her "Dee-Option Day" and we've had a countdown on the wall due to the sheer excitement that's built up at our house!

Today we will all write a blessing in her blessing book...the one she will keep for all her days. Where words and scriptures are written specifically for her life. And we will be thankful. Our hearts will be full. Fuller than normal. Because this day...this celebration...this adoption....it can't be taken from us. It's ours forever.

Today and forever - she will be a Keathley. It's a piece of her that no one can take away. And though I'm adopted myself, I'm not sure I ever understood the importance of Gotcha Day until I had kids to "gotcha" myself.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Adoption=The Gospel. Our journey is brutal at times....harder than we'd ever imagined. It's not fair. It's steep, and to be quite honest, there are days when you don't know if you're going to make it through to the next day.

And then you do...by the grace of God. And that grace? It's where we live. The ups and downs and ugly and beautiful...grace surrounds us always. And though my story looks so different than the one I had planned...I'm so grateful.

For it is so.much.better.