We met our (now) daughter in November of 2022 when we hosted her for 4 weeks over the holidays. I will never forget the moment she came through the doors of the international arrivals at the airport with the biggest smile on her face. She greeted me with a huge hug and spent the next several hours telling me all about her life in Colombia while we waited on our flight home. She told me about school and her life growing up and asked me several times if she would get to see snow while she was here. I knew immediately that 28 days together was going to fly by.
We spent the next month learning about each other’s lives, cultures, and languages. We did fun Christmas activities like seeing lights around town, baking and decorating cookies, and going to the holiday choir concert at the high school. We celebrated the Colombian holiday Día de las Velitas, and much to her surprise, our amazing neighbors even joined in! Several houses around us lined their sidewalks and driveways with candles to match ours and make her feel welcome. She couldn’t believe it.
We attempted some traditional Colombian holiday foods like buñuelos and natilla. We drank way too much hot chocolate. We watched her experience the magic of snow for the first time. And we spent most nights staying up entirely too late making up games, laughing together, swapping stories, and coming to love her more and more.
Before we knew it, a month was over and it was time for her to go back to Colombia. The goodbyes were long and sad. Watching her walk through security at the airport was so painful. But what she didn’t know is that we had already started the process to bring her back. Saying goodbye only motivated us that much more. We knew so much was out of our hands, but we also knew we would do everything in our power to be reunited with her if she would have us. We worked hard over the next year filling out more paperwork than imaginable, talking with social workers, reading books, taking classes, and trying to prepare our hearts and our home to welcome her back.
Finally, 9 months after saying goodbye, we got to have our first video call with her and ask her if she wanted to be a part of our family. As we hoped, she said, “Sí, para siempre!” Forever!
Almost a year after that first hug in the airport, we were finally reunited with her in Colombia. There are no words to adequately describe the moment we saw her again. It was joy, relief, love… truly every emotion you could think of rolled into one. We were blessed to spend a month in Colombia with her as a family of 6, and we absolutely fell in love with the country. The people are lovely, the food is delicious, and the scenery is gorgeous. Even after a year, we talk often about our time there and how much we miss it. We all hope to return in the next couple of years.
She’s been home for a year, and we are continually in awe of her. She ran cross country on the high school team this year, she got her first job, we just celebrated her 17th birthday surrounded by family and the many friends she has made here, she recently graduated to the advanced English learners class at school, she is working toward getting her learners’ permit, and on top of all that, she’s just a genuinely wonderful kid. This year hasn’t been without its challenges of course, but we were prepared for that.
We weren’t naive about adoption. We didn’t expect it to be beautiful and easy all the time. Adoption is born from loss, and parenting a child who didn’t grow up with you has different challenges. But our lives are better with her in them. And for better or worse, we are committed to her. We love her immensely and we always will. Para siempre.
