We just got back to our hotel after finalizing Faith's adoption. The world is minus one orphan and Faith is officially the newest member of the Back family!
Last night Faith slept very well, much better than we expected. She seems to be getting used to each of us more today. She ate well at breakfast and didn't have any melt downs this morning.
We were scheduled to meet our guide at 9:15 to go back to the civil affairs office to finalize the adoption and get the certificate of adoption. Kevin and I were dreading this because we knew the Foster mom would be there and we were worried Faith would have to be ripped away from her again like we did yesterday.
Everything went smoothly at the civil affairs center. They interviewed us and asked why we wanted to adopt her. I mean what do you say to that really? We want to provide her a loving home in a country where girls are not thrown away like trash. We want to keep her from being thrown out on to the streets at age 14 to fend for herself and likely go into prostitution or drugs. We want her to know the solidarity of a family and not be passed around year after year like she has been the past 3 years? (We found out she's lived with three foster families over the past two years!)...I though all of those things but simply spoke the simplest of truths - that we fell in love with her the moment we saw her face. From the day we saw that first picture, we just knew she was meant to be our daughter.
After the finalization of the adoption, we took several pictures. She got teary in some but I believe it was just because it was overwhelming. At this point, her foster mother had stayed out of sight so well I didn't even realize she was there.
When it was all said and done, we asked where her foster mom was hiding. We wanted Faith to have the opportunity to give her final good-bye. We were dreading it but ultimately thought Faith needed the closure. Our guide did a nice job in telling her that we would care for her forever and we were going to say good-bye to her auntie one last time.
When we found her foster mom sitting in the other room, Faith was very happy. They hugged and they both started crying (and so did I). They said their good-byes and gave a few hugs but then Faith went willingly back to Kevin to hold as we left. Once we were back in the van, she was ok and is now back to happily playing with her big sister.
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