After the news we got about a family member “possibly” contesting the adoption, we only had hours to decide if that would change our plans to take Moriah home the next morning. Actually that thought did not even occur to us until much later, when we thought back on if we should have done things differently. But those thoughts always prayerfully confirmed we were supposed to take her home and how she would have probably gone into the state system and foster care. We know without a doubt she is home where she was always meant to be.

We did ask questions but there were little answers, and with the holiday weekend (Memorial Day) we would likely not hear if that possibility was even likely for days. We were assured that it was more unlikely that papers were filed. We didn’t think much about it honestly. We were told that this person knew about the baby for quite a while and never made any requests or intentions known, despite being asked. We would later see that our attempts to communicate would yield the same quiet response.

Fortunately we spent the last remaining hours with the birth mama, assuring us that she picked us and wanted us to parent her daughter. She would confirm this over and over again the next tortuous months.

So we (birth mama, Tony and I) embraced each other and made our tearful promises to love our daughter forever. There were declarations of gratitude and love that came straight from the depths of our hearts. And we said good-bye. But we knew we would stay in touch. In fact, we wrote emails everyday for a while, then weekly, now monthly. We still send pictures. And we even met one day at her home for a very sweet visit, in the midst of court hearings and document signings. She loved seeing how “bonded” we were to our girl and her to us. And we loved her commitment to the dreams of the family she chose.

So we signed all the papers our adoption agency had for us and drove our baby girl home, to where our boys and my mom(Nana) were anxiously waiting with pink balloons. My grandparents were also excited to be visiting for Memorial Day, and even paused the Indy500 race to greet us with joy.

It was quite a joyful occasion. The boys were beyond enthusiastic to love on the sister they had anticipated and prayed for. It was one of the happiest memories I have stored in my brain.

It would be several days until we found out that our adoption was not going to be easy. I choose my words carefully here, because this wasn’t “the worst,” “most horrifying” “nightmare come true” type of finding. Maybe we were naive at this point and didn’t realize just how we could have lost her, but I like to think we knew God’s plans were better all along and so we didn’t panic. Just yet anyway.