#itsnevertoolate

Everyone call me "Mommy" because on Wednesday, October 7th I officially became a Mama, and Mulan, after 5,330 days in foster care, became a member of a family.

She didn't think it would happen.


The testing doubt, and fear that Mulan went through (and put us through) the weeks leading up to the adoption were almost overwhelming.

She spent the 13 days leading up to the adoption not celebrating, but certain that it wouldn't happen, and that I would leave her.


You see, I had always be certain that my husband would have the most to overcome when it came to gaining our kids' trust. It is, after all, almost always the father figure who perpetuates the abuse. Mulan is no different. Her abuse came primarily from men. But it was the women in her life who abandoned her.

Her biological mother sold her. Repeatedly.

Her would be adoptive mother kicked her out of the house and she lived in the woods for days.

So it was me that she was the most afraid of (if you have never been the object of your child's nightmares you might not understand what that means to me).

It got so bad that Mulan asked to sleep on our floor the night before we adopted her.


But Wednesday did come, and the judge, who has known Mulan for over a decade, had us raise our right hands and promise to love, protect, and afford Mulan all of the rights and responsibilities of a child that belongs to us.

She is ours, and after 5,330..... she is home.