July 13th.

In the wee hours of this morning, I sit in my children's bedrooms, and I look down at all three of them sleeping peacefully.  In particular, I stare with gratitude at my two Ethiopian-born children, thinking about another July 13th in recent history.  Two years ago today our adoption agency, Imagine Adoption, went bankrupt, amidst a swirl of fraud allegations surrounding its executive director and her husband.  Like hundreds of others across Canada, I was heart broken, and thought our dreams of family expansion were over.  We were utterly devastated.  Even now, I cannot think about it, or write about it, without the tears overflowing.  Following that news, I spent the next two days pretty much in bed, devastated by the turn of events and unable to cope with life.  I arranged care for Matthew for those days so that I could follow obsessively the unfolding of events online.  On the third day, I, along with many others in the same position, got up and out of bed and decided that the story's ending had not yet been written.

Fast forward five months of incredibly hard work by many families, along with Imagine's Trustee in Bankruptcy, to December 16th, 2009, when the restructured agency issued its first post-bankruptcy referrals...and the start of a new era began.  There have been so many ups and downs in this adoption journey since then, and following the bankruptcy, I never lost the feeling of uncertainty that our adoption would ever be complete.  There's something about that kind of devastation that leaves one a bit more jaded about life; a bit more aware that things we think are a certainty may not, in fact, turn out the way we envision.  Many families who were caught up in the bankruptcy are still waiting for their referrals, and I will be watching their news until they, too, have ben able to bring a conclusion to their adoption plans.

But for us?  Well...

...I never thought, on July 13th two years ago, that I would be watching my two, beautiful, Ethiopian-born children sleep in their new home this morning.  We have our miracles after all...three of them, in fact...they are lying right here in front of me.