December 2nd = Lindsay is a Mama and Shannon is a Papa

We will call our daughter Vera M... Lyon Haggard. She was born at the end of June and is five months old. She has the most amazing smile, big brown eyes and long legs (very unlike her Mama). Many Ethiopians have loved her and taken care of her in both northern and central Ethiopia. We have 14 pictures and two videos of her which are priceless. She is perfect.

On December 2nd, everything came together for our family. M's birth daddy made the trip to Addis to give his formal consent that we become her parents, as he could not take care of her after her mommy died. I wonder what that was like for him. Such a happy day for us could not have been very pleasant for him. We will remember him and thank him always. MoWa decided to write a letter for us and take it the court. Everyone with important keys decided to come to work that day. Most importantly the judge (I don't which one--the nice one or the strict one?) decided that we are fit to be parents to this precious little girl.

Next month sometime we will go get her and bring her home. NEXT MONTH.

And suddenly, just like that, the worry begins to leave. It doesn't want to leave, so it sometimes does strange things like make my head hurt or provoke shivers up and down my body. All the same, it's leaving, and something beautiful and fulfilling (although still slightly terrifying) is replacing it--Motherhood.