It was just a mere few months into our marriage when one of the best things in the world happened. I had experienced my best day just a few months before and now Alicia was about to have hers. March16th was her day, the day she officially and legally became a Bailey.
Alicia Lauren Bailey
Despite the immense joy of that day and the dramatic way it changed Alicia's life, I don't even think it is a day she remembers. As far as she knew, this day was really not going to change anything in her life aside from making something she already believed legal. In her eyes, her daddy has always been her daddy. He has loved her from the very first day he met her and he made sure he let her know it. I will always remember the transition she made as this sweet little girl who toddled around calling out to Mr. Chris then to Daddy Chris and then to simply Daddy.
I am so grateful that despite the beginnings of our life together (you can read all about it on a previous post http://allbecauseofhope.blogspot.com/2012/04/big-news.html ) she was now going to have the life that she deserved. A life where she was cherished, adored and always had an open lap to climb upon. She would never grow up and question whether or not she was loved. She would always be told she was beautiful and reminded of the preciousness of her sweet little dimple. Butterfly kisses and "whiskers" would always be lavished upon her and there would never be a shortage of feet larger than hers to stand upon as she danced through the house. Swinging over curbs between the hands of two people who adored her and being thrown into the air and caught every single time would now become normal parts of her memories.
The most beautiful thing of all of this is that it wasn't necessary. My husband did not have to adopt her to be all of those things to her. She was his daughter he dearly loved long before the adoption ever took place. Legal papers couldn't possibly change that. The sad fact is, she once was abandoned by another, however it was to be a pain that she was never going to know because her daddy never left her side. Sure, things could have gone on without the adoption ever taking place, with the difference of only one thing, one really big thing. Adoption is a choice. It is a choice that was made where the heart of my husband said to Alicia "I choose you. I want to be in relationship with you as your father and you as my child. I choose you to be my daughter". He didn't adopt her out of obligation, he adopted her because he chose to. She was simply that precious to him. Every little girl and even big ones too, long for that kind of love. The kind of love that says, I know I don't have to, I know you may not feel you deserve it but I still choose you. I will love you, protect you, fight for you and never leave your side. There are no sweeter words and there is no greater blessing than a Father choosing his child and vowing to love her forever.
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