The Tale...

I told Ivan his adoption story for the first time the other night. I was giving him his "night night" bottle and we were sitting in his room in the antique rocker my parents surprised me with when we got home. I was just staring into his eyes when it just started to pour out.

The story went something like this...

Mommy and Daddy wanted a child very much so we asked God for a child. God said that He had special plans for our family and that we had to be patient and wait for His perfect timing. In time, God told us about a wonderful little boy in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan...you! We told God that we wanted to be the little boy's Mommy and Daddy and that we would love him forever and ever. We wanted to leave right away to meet you but God said that we needed to continue to be patient and wait on His perfect timing. Several months passed and we kept asking God when will it be time for us to meet our son? God told us to continue to wait on His perfect timing.

Then one day in June 2005 God told Mommy and Daddy that it was time to go and meet their little boy. So we booked airplane tickets as fast as we could. We boarded the airplane and we flew, and we flew, and we flew all the way to Kazakhstan. We met you on July 3, 2005 and we were so happy to finally meet you face to face. Mommy and Daddy went to the judge and told him that we wanted to make you our son forever and ever and that we loved you very much. The judge said that we could be your Mommy and Daddy forever and ever. Then all three of us flew, and we flew, and we flew all the way home. Were we lived happily ever after.

The coolest part was the fact that Ivan maintained eye contact with me almost throughout the entire story. It was obvious that he was really listening to what I was telling him. I told Ivan the story again tonight as I fed him his bottle. This time he seemed to be listening even more intently than the other night.

This is just one of the steps that J and I are taking to try and ensure that Ivan never has an "I'm adopted?" moment. We want him to know how proud we are of the fact that he is adopted without calling too much attention to it at the same time. This is one of those things that we will do over the years but will have no idea if we handled it appropriately until he is much older. I hope that we are on the right track.