Always and Forever

Tonight at dinner, Joy brought up her birth parents.

Here was our conversation (as best as we can remember):

Joy: Remember I had two mommies and two daddies? (I am not sure where she gets the idea of two.)

Me: Yes, they are your birth family.

Joy: I wish I could see them.

Me: I wish we could, too.

Joy: Are they in Heaven?

Me: No, they are far away in China.

Joy: I want to go there.

Me: I do, too. We don't know your birth family. It is kind of a mystery. (Then I talk about how her birth parents wanted to take care of her, but were not able to. So, they made sure she would be adopted by mommy and daddy and that we would come to China to love her.)

Paul: And now, we are your Forever Family.

Me: And, we will love you for forever and ever and ever and ever. (There may have been a few more ever's in there.)

On February 6, it will be three years since we held Joy for the first time. I have thought a lot about this conversation and what it might be like. I have been nervous about what to say. I have read lots of articles about it. Little bits of it have been talked about. Lots of children's books have been read about adoption. (Thank goodness that there are so many.)

I suppose I can second guess what I said. Maybe I am remembering incorrectly. Maybe I left something out. What might be the most important thing about the conversation was the honesty. Honesty about her first months and honesty about how much we truly love her.