So very much has happened in such a short amount of time, and we have barely had time to wrap our minds around it so forgive us for not writing sooner.  As many of you have seen through social media, our last court case went well!  We were granted a “temporary adoption” which although it sounds tenuous it actually is not.  It means her birth parent’s parental rights have been terminated and we have full rights to her care.  All the “temporary” means is that California DSS needs to make sure the adoption is going well and no harm is happening and once that goes through she will officially be an Abadjian.  So, we have a daughter!!!

At so many points in this process Shant and I have found ourselves looking at each other and saying, is this real?  Is this actually happening to us?!  After a few days of actually having our little girl here with us, it’s starting to feel more and more real.  The emotional implications of all this have been (very) joyful, scary, wonderful, overwhelming, and everything you may expect from two first time parents.  It also is taking time to settle in to the physical role of mom and dad.  There is a lot less uninterrupted sleep, a lot more lifting holding and (wonderfully) more snuggling required.  

More than ANYTHING, we have been absolutely amazed to see our little girl settling in to us.  We prepped for a very difficult road.  I mean having spent the first year and a half with her grandma, I imagined that leaving her and going with us would be incredibly hard.  I pictured screaming, crying, despondency, and even rage.  What has the reality been?  A very happy, giggley, sweet girl who, yes has her moments of grumpy hunger and sleepiness just like any other toddler but nothing more severe than this.  She knows me as Mama and despite Shant’s best efforts to get her to call him Baba (she calls her bottle that!) she recognizes him as Dada.  She joyfully comes to us when she wakes up and feels like she has been with us for months rather than weeks.  In fact today when Shant was with her he said “I love you” and in the most adorable toddler babbling voice she repeated “Ahy yuh yoo”.

Our time with her has been SO utterly outside of what I expected that I cannot even reconcile the reasons for this, other than the fact that she is exactly where she needs to be, and the Lord put this truth into her little heart long before we even knew about her.  Tonight we read her a book for the first time that we received from a dear friend.  Shant and I had to trade off because we were basically crying the whole time (happy and amazed tears). It just summed into words exactly how we are feeling:

“And you are a dream that the world once dreamt and now you are part of its song. That’s why you are here, in the place where you’re are meant, for this is right where you belong.” -You Belong Here, written by M.H. Clark

We just can’t get over how very orchestrated all this has been.  Every little step we cannot overlook how present the Lord has been and how directed we feel.  Additionally we have been just surrounded by people (YOU) who are lovingly supporting and encouraging us.  I know we have said this many times before and will say it again, but truly from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for everything especially to those of you who continue to pray.  IT IS WORKING!