The Journey: Introducing Paizley Ruth Petree

"God sets the lonely in families" ~Psalm 68:6

I am pleased to introduce to you our newest (legal) addition: Paizley Ruth Petree (standing with Judge Hatch who just ordered it to be so!)! We are official now!

We went to court today! I prayed that it would be a spiritual and loving experience, and my prayers were answered! I took the stand to testify to our intentions with Paizley. As the lawyer asked me if we understood what adopting her meant, I replied, "Yes, We want her forever." Paizley looked at me and grinned. Then in what had to be a diving move, he said, "You understand that adoption is just like if you had given birth to her by blood." These words were profound because Paizley's last foster placement had told her that "you" can't love other children like your blood. These words haunt her often. My heart smiled when the lawyer used these exact words! I sat a little taller, looked straight into Paizley's eyes across the room and choked out, "Yes, I understand and that is our desire." She smiled back through her own tears. I pray that those words and that moment in time are etched in her mind and heart forever, erasing previous words and settling in her heart forever that I love her the same as any child I gave birth to.

When it was over, Judge Hatch came down off the stand and mingled with all of us. It was just a sweet time! There really was a team of people that worked on this adoption. Even the judge commented on the thorough report done by the social worker for the case. Erin, her CPS worker was amazing! She is the reason that we could find her on TARE on October and have her in our home by the end of November! Our Buckner case worker drove all the way up to Lubbock to be there. And we are very thankful she did because she babysat all the other kids (Baby Girl being the one needing it most!) during the actual court proceedings! This is the team that worked so diligently to get us to this day!

It truly was a wonderful day! A time of refreshing and reminding me of why it is we do this thing we do, both as a family and as a professional! Yes the past six months have been hard, and we will have more hard times to come, but it - SHE is worth it! Today reminded me that placing a child in a family is worth whatever heart ache it takes to make it happen and make it last! Buckner gave us a ton of presents that all made me cry! One was a flip calendar on love. The one for today was so fitting as I read it out loud to her. It was about "choosing" love and getting rid of all escape routes in any relationship you have! Wow! Perfect timing....for her and me! And it is so true! Today was significant in that it solidified our desire to get rid of all escape routes! She is ours! Period!

Judge Hatch has a tradition of letting new adoptees pick a stuffed animal from his office. He told her he knew that she might not be as young as some, but offered it to her anyway, and of course she took him up on it! And this is what she chose! Just another reminder of the little girl who never got to be a little girl...until now! Sweet moment!

But God wasn't done with us yet! After court we went to the mall. A precious friend is doing a photo shoot with Paizley this Saturday for her sweet sixteen pictures, so she wanted to get a new outfit. Shopping is always a bit of a conflicting experience, so it was tense at times. But on our way out of the mall, I saw that the Heart Gallery (how we learned about her back in October) was set up. She had one more store she wanted to look in and while I was in there, I remembered that we hadn't received her heart gallery picture like we had been told we would. Just made a mental note to call Erin to see when we might could get that. I didn't know if she would want to look at the Heart Gallery pictures or not. Sometimes she can be very sensitive about these things and I wasn't sure what the temperature was today. I kind of headed that direction to look at just a few of them. She followed and got excited when she recognized a couple of the kids. She became sad when she showed me one young man who was in an adoptive placement in that foster home I mentioned earlier, but found out today that foster family (you know the one who told her they couldn't love another like blood) backed out on him. Her heart broke for him. If anyone is looking for a 13 year old boy who wants badly to be in a family, I have a little man for you! We continued around the pictures, and I hear her say, "It's me!" I thought she was joking! But sure enough, there she was! Her Heart Gallery picture was right there with her profile just like all the rest! Seeing my daughter's picture looking for a family was a little surreal! Then seeing her standing beside it and hearing her read the words that we read off a computer screen 7 months ago - our introduction to her - was, well, not really any words to describe it!

My favorite part? It's the little sign hanging on the top left corner - "Family Selected"! Yep, on the day we finalized, God gave me a perfect picture of His redemptive power! From a little girl smiling into a camera, dreaming - but never really believing - that someone would see that picture and choose her as their forever daughter to the beautiful young woman standing right beside it - no more piercings, I might add (a post for another day)- confident in her new found role as daughter! Just a perfect picture!

"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you" ~John 14:18

Going to bed the blessed mom to 7 amazing children! Looking forward to the day Baby Girl's face doesn't have to be blurred and she too is legally ours! Thank you, God despite my doubts, my fears, my insecurities and my many failures as a mother, you have allowed me to call these mine! Thank you for today and the reminders of how blessed I am to be on this journey, as hard as it is, with this amazing young woman!