Gotcha Day

As many of you know, we adopted our first son, Seth, from Colombia, South America when he was 9 months old.  The first day we met him was August 30, 2007.  In our family, we call this his "Gotcha Day." Gotcha Day is a term used by many adoptive families to celebrate the day that the child or children became a part of the family.  Some families simply call this "adoption day" or "family day." We love the term "Gotcha Day"- for us it means "this is the day we finally got you into our arms and we became a family forever." 

Gotcha Day is more significant to me than his birthday (which we celebrate too, of course, and has its own significance) because it meant the end of a long journey for us, and the beginning of another. Our adoption process took nearly three years, which was nearly a year and a half longer than the original expected length. We believed with our whole hearts that God led us to adoption and that Colombia was where our first child would come from- but the journey was longer and harder than we expected. Some days it seemed like there was no end in sight.  But then on August 7, 2007, we got the phone call telling us we had a son! And in Colombia, you travel very quickly to meet and adopt your child, so we were there just three weeks later. 

Meeting Seth, holding him, bringing him home with us, and finally having our baby was something I will never forget.  I will post more info about adoption as time goes on, but I wanted to share with you a few thoughts. First, a lot of things in life require us to wait. I have come to believe that if God leads you to something and then asks you to wait for it, there is a reason. For us, that reason was that God had picked Seth out for our family, but we had to wait to be matched with him as our specific child. In fact, we began the adoption journey years before Seth was even born. Secondly, now that I've also given birth to a biological child, I can say without a doubt there is no difference between loving Seth and loving Eli as my children.  I think all parents would say that you appreciate and like different traits in your different children, but as far as attachment, bonding, feelings of protection, and just general love- there is no difference for me. 

At the moment they handed Seth to me three years ago, he became my son forever- and I believe that it was supposed to be that way. So we are going to go on a picnic today to celebrate Gotcha Day, and remember the amazing miracle that happened to us. I am so grateful and so overwhelmed with the blessing of Seth as my son.  If any of you out there have ever considered adoption, please feel free to message me with thoughts or questions. I am happy to share our journey and help in any way I can. Happy Gotcha Day to my precious baby boy- who is now 3 1/2!