GOTCHA DAY for The BOOTHS: What it means to us: For all parents out there, no matter what path taken, it's a huge job and for the adoptive parents out there who turned their world inside out, who spent days wondering if it would ever happen, every single minute is worth all of the steps to become parents.
Paper work for a year, driving to capitals, time after time waiting, physicals at the doctors, psychology reports from the psych docs, your financial details; basically before you are parents, your whole life is checked from the inside out, from your house, how u prepare, your finances, your medical and mental well being, in some cases twice to make sure things haven't changed in 2 months, 3 months, travels, court hearings in places you have never been and then for the next couple of years placement reports every 6 months, more drives to the capital. For some, all of this is often done after years of trying, years of fertility treatments, feeling like lab rats. I remember by the end before court, I knew I had given everything about us, who we were, who we are and who we were going to be and knew that it was worth us being stripped down naked so the officials knew our son was going to a good home.
By the time they asked me in court, "HunterAnn, how did you feel when you first saw your son?" I said, "How can anyone put that into words? I have no words for what I felt". Our court time was 15 minutes.
If someone asks me, "Why do it all over, go through all of this again?"
I say to them, "Because it brought me a son, who for the first year of his life was in a baby home and knew nothing of what a family could be or who a mama and papa were and what it was like to have his own room, his own toys, his own dog and the ability to feel and experience life for the first time, touching trees, grass and tasting different foods".
If I could give that to another little girl or boy who is sitting there hoping one day Mama or Papa will come pick them up, then I will go through all of the above and more. We only live once and to give that chance that I had growing up to another person, is worth any inconvenience. That is how I see "Gotcha Day"
