Today Lydia’s adoption was finalized in court and she had her name legally changed. We are officially a family of five! This has been a longing of my heart for so long now, and it’s finally a reality. I am overwhelmingly happy that Lydia is officially my daughter now.
Even though it felt somewhat cold and hurried and formal in the courtroom, this was such an amazing experience for me. To state that I am promising to be a good father to Lydia, to meet her needs both expected and unexpected. What a special thing.
After the judge said that Lydia’s name was now officially changed to Lydia Kiko Seaman, I heard a little clap from the row behind me. Ezra was clapping in excitement for Lydia. It was very cute.
Apparently jewelry was the way to celebrate Lydia’s big day of joining the family. She received earrings from Sarah and me with March’s birth stones in them, and she received a necklace and earring and ring set from my mom. And she got a bracelet from my aunt. She was so happy. What a fun day this was. It’s so good to see Lydia so happy, too.
Our good friends and fellow Family-Teachers, Jeff and Jenn, gifted us with some flowers and a note as well to celebrate the day. That simple gesture meant a lot. A few years ago Sarah and I had discussed what it might look like to try and adopt a third child, a girl. We knew it would be complicated to do at Boys Town since we already had two kids of our own and the eight teenagers that also lived with us. We can’t really do foster care while also doing this job, so we didn’t know how it could even happen, but we felt fairly strongly about it.
Sarah mentioned this to Jenn, seeking wisdom for how to think through it all, and how to go about it. Jenn was encouraging to Sarah, and confident that it would happen at the right time. She said that if God wanted us to adopt a girl, he would make it obvious. It wasn’t too much longer after that talk that Lydia was placed in our home.
Even just weeks into dating back in 2004, Sarah and I had imagined what a life together would look like. I remember telling Sarah on a walk late at night in her neighborhood that my dream would to be have two kids of our own and then to adopt a third child. Of course we were just infatuated teenagers at the time, starting to fall in love, but it brings me so much joy to have those little dreams become our reality 17 years later.
Little did we know that at that very moment, Lydia was probably about four months old. Our paths and timelines went about their own ways until just over two years ago when she came to live in our home. And here we are today. She is my daughter. I love her so much. We are so blessed.
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