2386 and 1584

Two numbers.

Each represent the passage of time while two children waited.

Each represent the passage of time while my first niece, the foster parent, waited.

 

The first number is for the older child.

That one has waited since May 2, 2017.

That was 2,386 days ago.

That child was only 33 days old when placed into foster care.

That child was barely over a month old.

That child had been in the hospital since birth.

That child went straight from the hospital into foster care.

That foster parent has been the only person she ever called Mama.

That foster parent has been the only person she ever knew as Mama.

 

That child had been with that foster parent for 802 days when a change occurred.

Ordinarily, that change would have been the completion of the adoption process.

That was not the change for that child.

Another child, a blood sibling of the first, was placed into foster care.

That second child was 285 days old when placed into foster care.

That second child was over nine months old when abandoned by the birth mother.

That second child was placed with her sister into foster care.

That foster parent has been the only person she has called Mama since her arrival there.

That foster parent has been the only person she knows as Mama.

 

This is the eve of their long-awaited Adoption Day.

I'll be at the courthouse with them tomorrow as the judge signs the papers.

I'll be at the courthouse with that foster parent as the the judge signs the papers.

I'll be at the courthouse with my first niece as the judge signs the papers.

I have to be there.

I have been awaiting this day with them.

I have to be there to see the judge sign the papers.

I have to know that this is real, that the three of them will be forever family.

 

I will be there.