Gotcha Day

Through the journey of my cancer diagnosis I have been remiss to remember another important day in our family. On Oct 17, 2012, Elliana Marie officially became an Asbery. I remember being on the phone with our adoption agency and answering the questions of the attorney 1900 miles away in California. Will we love her like our natural children? Absolutely! Will she be eligible for inheritance like our boys? Yes! BAM the gavel goes down and the judge declares her OURS! I remember Dave was holding Elliana and I was standing standing beside him. At the gavel sound, I fell to the floor in tears. I did not even realize the amount of stress and breath holding I had been holding in for the past 8 months. She is ours!

And since then, if not before, there has never been any doubt that his child was born to be in our family. She fits us like a glove. She has mannerisms that are just like me. But she has her birthmother's long fingers. We prayed for a child just like her. For ten years I wanted a daughter in our family. And Elliana is our dream come true. We prayed for her before she was born, and we continue to do so.

For her Gotcha Day gift, we got her ears pierced. It was our forever gift to her, as she is our forever gift. I first held her when she was 18 hours old, but she has had my heart long before she was born. I quoted in my book that I saw a child in my dreams that had blue eyes like my father, brown curly hair, and a spirit that just won't quit. God has given me my heart's desire. Elliana has blue eyes like her Grandpa Fisher. She has brown curly hair like I did as a child, and she is showing that she has a spirit that won't say quit. She is in every aspect, a child of mine. She grew in our hearts, long before we held her in our arms. We are blessed by adoption.

We have a semi open adoption with her birth mother. She and I share a private face book page where I give her updates and post pictures she can share. I also have an open relationship with Elliana's maternal birth aunt. Through her, I am able to gain family history and share out sweet girl's life. We are blessed by an open adoption.

I never knew our lives would go this way. That one day, my husband would come home and say he felt led to adopt. That he would voice the avenue that I had been praying for years ago. That we would pick an agency seemingly overnight and that within four and a half months of Dave uttering those words, that we would hold our daughter in our arms.

Happy Gotcha Day, Nonna! We adore you! You are our heart's desire and you complete our family. We love you!! May you always know how much you were wanted and loved!!!