From their perspective

People ask my big ones if they are excited to have a little brother. They always smile kindly and then say something about how they are. The truth is they've had a little brother for the last 20 months. Last week he came to a scout meeting with us and he almost took out a few of the scouts with the flag pole. He's really good at destroying the big ones special towers, and ripping up school projects if they are left unattended. They are his two most favorite people to play with, while they work on school stuff he'll stand in the doorway hollering their names hoping they will come play with him. They have helped make bottles, get diapers, give baths, they have snuggled him to sleep, played hard, and helped him learn to grow into a boy. When they talk about the adoption they say things like, "Finally, he'll have our last name." "Soon, Mom, you won't have to write everything about him down." "Once he's adopted we won't have so many appointments."... They don't see adoption day as the day they get a little brother, they see adoption day as a day of freedom when we can simply be a family, because the truth is none of us know what life was like before him. We all already think we are a family. Going to court, meeting the judge, and signing some papers is all just a technicality for us. We are a family.