Happy Adoption Day!!!!!

One year ago today Stacey and I "defended" ourselves in an Ukrainian court room for the privilege of being Micah Coy Yankey's parents. It was not the intimidating experience that some folks have described. I am sure that it varies from court to court and from judge to judge. I still remember rather vividly walking down the hallways of what looked like an abandoned building and turning into the "courtroom". Luckily, we had met most of the people that were in the room before and knew that they were there to help us. The judge asked us several questions about who we were and why we wanted to adopt Coy. I don't remember exactly what I said but it was something to the effect that we had been given much and that we wanted the opportunity to share what we had been given with others. I didn't want to offend them by giving them the impression that these rich Americans could do so much better than their system, but lets face it, the resources that we have available to us far exceed what they have in every way. I have my suspessions that Sveta did not translate my words verbatim but instead said what she thought the court would want to hear. I don't know for sure. Eitherway, it worked out for the good. We were so glad when that part was over because it meant that the official countdown to the return home with Coy had begun.

Since today was Coy's Adoption Day, we tried to make it special for him. Seems like Stacey and I had heard or read something from James Dobson about giving adopted children another special day in addition to their birthday to let them know that their adoption is a good thing and not something to be ashamed about. So we decided to make Coy's adoption day a special day for him. We let him pick where we went to eat and then we went to the dollar store to get him a mylar balloon. He picked Ci Ci's Pizza for lunch and then picked out a Garfield Birthday Balloon. It made it home but as soon as we got home, he went outside and he took it off of his wrist and let go. Needless to say, we learned a lesson about helium balloons and letting them go outside.

When I think about Coy and where he came from and where he is now, I can't help but think that he is better off now. I know we are better off now. We try to help Caleb and Katie appreciate where Coy has come from and why we are so lucky to have him in our family. Caleb gets it. Katie, I think, is still having trouble at times. If you hadn't seen it though, I can understand not completely appreciating it.