Answers for Shawn

My sister Shawn asked me some questions on facebook (props for her being on facebook more!) so I thought I would turn them into an interview style post.

Shawn: Are you feeling any relief yet, or will that have to wait until you actually hold her in your arms?

@: Every forward movement brings an element of relief from the exhaustion of waiting.

Shawn: Do you expect a challenging transition for her or for your kids?

@: Including a new member in the family is a natural thing, just like when we bring home babies from the hospital. That doesn’t imply that there are no challenges. Of course I expect to encounter situations where we all will need to adjust.

Shawn: Once you have her will there be more challenges to over come that we can be praying about?

@: I am sure there will be. I will be blogging about as much as I can and whatever comes up will be good for prayer. Attachment seems to be the buzz word in the adoption world. We will be purposeful about this bonding. I wouldn’t say that this is something we have to ‘overcome’ because it will be an ongoing process, just as I continue to stay connected to my other kids and they stay connected to each other as they move to new phases of development in their lives.

Shawn: At what point in this process will she become a Washington?

@: I haven’t asked about the details yet. I imagine that it will go something along the lines of 1.) finalize adoption where all her identity documentation is given to us 2.) we process a name change in Bolivia to give her the family name 3.) then we process her born abroad certificate from the States and get her a U.S. passport. After all that gets done all her i.d. documents will have the name Washington on them. That is the technical side. On the spiritual side of things she is part of the Washington family right now as we include her in our plans, our prayers and our dreams.

Shawn: Will she become a U.S. citizen? How does that work?

@: Yes, she will be a U.S. citizen. That will work through bunches of boring paper work, standing in many lines, the payment of fees and getting the official signatures from the high-ups. I guess I should know all the details, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Thanks for your questions, Shawn! That was fun.

Tagged as: Bolivia