I know you're supposed to write a post and then introduce yourself, but I like to switch things up.
I'm Natalia, and I'm guest posting for the crazy awesome Kimberly today. Please, hold your applause.
Just kidding, there's no need for applause, as I still don't even know what I'm going to say.
The title? That's what I've had the title be the past couple days, to avoid any confusion. But I like it. So there's that. Well, let me start over and be normal. Here's your guest post :)
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This is the face my mom, sisters and I all fell in love with almost three years ago.
We (meaning my mom for the most part) had been looking up different adoption websites, agencies, and had filled out some stuff in order to view photos of certain children.
We knew hardly anything about the boy in the above photo. He had been burned as a baby, but nobody knew how. He was two years old. He was a happy little toddler.
Besides that, we knew nothing else, except that he was meant to be in our family.
My mom and I were ready to hop on a plane and go meet him. But we still had to see how everyone else in the family would react.
My dad came home that night from work, saw the photo on the computer screen and said that if we were going to adopt, we were going to adopt this boy.
Within the next week or so, we found out that the boy's name was Sanjai, and that he was living in India. We started filling out lots of paperwork. I didn't have to do much, except for drawing a couple pictures, talking to social workers, etc.
Usually with an adoption, you fill out the paperwork, and then get your referral. Our process was sort of backwards though, as we knew about Sanjai, and then started filling out all the paperwork.
This was a blessing and a curse. He kept us going, but we just wanted him to be with us!
In the beginning, we were told that our adoption process would take 6-9 months. It took 23.
There was lots of miscommunication, and stuff I don't like to get into that much. It was a long process.
But in July 2010, we got a call saying basically that we could go get Sanjai!
My parents and little brother were going down to India while my two sisters and I stayed with my grandparents.
And in August last year, we were together as a family!
Sanjai has been doing remarkably well. He speaks English, plays with friends, and was a trooper as he had to have a surgery a few months ago.
His surgery went well, he had to have a plastic surgery on his face to help pull skin up because the skin on his face was tight due to the burns. He now has to wear a mask to hold it in place, but he never complains and we are SO proud of him.
Adoption has touched my life in so many ways. I can not even begin to get into details.
I'm not going to lie, there have been tough times. But I think for our family, one of the main reasons we adopted was because we felt God calling us to.
It wasn't for selfish reasons, it wasn't to prove anything... it was simply answering God's call to be an adoptive family.
And just so there's no mixup, I don't look at Sanjai as "adopted". He's my little brother -- the end.
The thing is, during the process a few people questioned it.
Why are you doing this?
Don't you already have four kids?
How old is your youngest anyways?
Why not a child in America?
Most of the questions were fair. But still, sometimes I just wanted to tell people that we are simply following the path God has chosen for us.
Through adoption, many amazing things have happened. I've met new friends, grown closer to old ones, had a chance to share not only the miracle of adoption but my faith as well...
Adoption is truly a blessing. If you would like to find out more about Sanjai and our adoption process, you can go to this website (and I post photos of Sanjai all the time on my blog, so you can see them there, too).
Well, I hope I didn't bore you all too much. Thanks again to Kimberly for letting me do this!
And if you have any questions, feel free to ask them here or on my blog :)
You can also click the link below to watch a video with photos summing up our adoption.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmWQKbFg7-c
I'm just a girl striving to follow God. I have a blog that's really like my journal. I keep thoughts, ideas and memories in my posts.
{nisfornatalia.blogspot.com}
Thanks again, Kimberly! You rock :)
