In North Texas last night, apparently, a large, destructive storm blew through. It knocked out power to many and left most without having to go to school. My agency was without power and therefore closed for the day. However, I had already planned to be in Cleburne all day celebrating the wonderful gift of adoption with one my families. Because of this, I did not have the day "off" as many of my co-workers did. I did, however not have to go at 8am. When I set my alarm, knowing I didn't need to leave my house until 9:30, I, geniusly, set my alarm, for 9:30. Oops. So, instead of leaving at 9:30 I left at 9:50 (post shower, blow dry, dressed, AND jewelry!). By the time I arrived at the office, to say I was frazzled is pretty much an understatement. I had to pick up an intern and all the items for the adoption ceremony and had to be in Cleburne at 11am. By God's grace, I made it with a little time to spare. After court, it was time to finish preparing for the ceremony that was to start at 4pm. At this point, I would like to share with you how much I love my job. Today, I was able to literally witness the creation of a new family. I saw three people who'd been living under the same roof for that past year and ahalf become a bona fide, legally bonded, Godly covenanted family. It makes me tear up a little just thinking about the things I was allowed to witness today. I saw a young lady, surrounded by people who love her, tell a judge "Yes, I want to be adopted" and "Yes, I want that to be my new name". I got to see this same little girls face literally light up when she saw her cake that had her new name on it. I was there when she called her adoptive father "dad" and say "Dad, carry me". It was absolutely beautiful. During the adoption ceremony, we do two different activities. One, is to honor those who played a role in the adoption process (this is the candle lighting ceremony" and one, is used to show the creation of the new family (the water ceremony).
In the candle lighting ceremony, (seen here)
we light a candle to honor various members of the adoption process. It starts with the adoptive parents lighting a candle for the birth parents, then a candle is lit for the adoptive child, the adoptive family, any professionals the family wishes in include, and finally it finishes with a candle being lit honoring all the children who continue to wait for their forever family. This is a beautiful way to honor so many who worked so selflessly and nobeling for this child to have a forever family.
In the water ceremony, (seen here)
we combine colored water for members of the adoption triad. In this ceremony, the yellow represented the birth family, the orange (it was pink in person) represented the adopted child, the purple represented the adoptive mother, and the green represented to adoptive father. I poured for the birth family, and each of the other members poured their own. At the end, it created a new color. A beautiful new color that was completely intricate with the other colors. No matter how you try, you can not separate the colors from each other. How beautiful is that imagine in an adoption.
I love my "job". Even though, technically, today, I should have been "closed for business", I was able to be apart of a beautiful, moving, special, wonderful, and many other positive adjectives about my day. A big congrats to my family who completed their adoption today! My prayers will continue to follow you onto this next journey...parenting a pre-teen!!!!
Love, Mrs. M.
