Anyone who knows me would be able to tell you that my little sister owns my heart. She has me (and everyone else in our family) one hundred and ten percent wrapped around her finger. Oh and she is completely aware of this and uses it to her advantage. I don’t know where my life would be had ourfamily not been blessed with our crazy girl, Katie. One of the most important days of the year is Katie’s “Gotcha Day” where we celebrate the day that her adoption was finalized and she was able to come home to her forever family. The adoption process was long and because of many political factors in her birth country, until her gotcha day, it was uncertain. My mom and step-dad were patient and optimistic and it oh how it paid off when Miss Katie came home to us.
What does this have to do with my Alaskan journey you may ask? One of the students in my school has been fostered by a family in the village. Our student (who I’ll call B) is a sweet young boy who has not had an easy or stable life. He is with a great couple now and they are finally going to become an official family this week. His gotcha day is in a few days and I am so excited to welcome him back to school when he returns!
The past few weeks, we’ve really been embracing his upcoming adoption and the changes that will come with it. Not only will B be changing his last name, but he has decided to change his first name as well. This, to me, is an amazing thing. It will signify a new start for him and bring a clean slate for his future. That he made this decision on his own, in third grade, makes me so proud of him. This young boy deserves a happy life and he is taking part in making this happen for himself.
While Katie was not born with the name Katherine, the family that fostered her did call her Katie; it’s the only name that she’s ever known. But for B, his decision to take on a new name comes eight years into his life of being B. However, he has chosen to become R and so we’ve been trying to shift gears and begin calling him by his new name. This is something that Chris and I have taken to doing in the past few weeks and it gets easier by the day. The process hasn’t been without its slips though. The poor kid gets called B one second and R the next only to get called B again two seconds later; but we're getting better.
Not only do Chris and I try to call him by his chosen name, but we’re trying to get the other students to do so as well. This has been incredibly difficult because many of our students just can’t grasp the concept of why his name is changing. One of my little girls said “but I like your name better when it’s B.. I like R too, but I think B is nicer kind of" to which R patiently replied "well I'm going to be R and that's the name I like better". Our students aren’t exposed to much diversity in lifestyles or scenarios, so this has been a new thing to them. I don’t think anyone has yet to call him R, but we’re working on it.
Another thing that I’ve noticed as we gear up for his gotcha day is that I’ve now experienced the adoption process through two completely different sets of circumstances. The first time around, I followed it as a high-schooler who was eager to have a little sister. We didn’t get to have life with Katie until she was home with us, we watched her first year and a half pass by through monthly pictures. Now however, I’m seeing it from the other side, as a teacher who knows that this boy is getting a better life in the family he is becoming a part of. Watching his transformation over the past two months as he realized that this will actually be happening has been amazing.
There are times when I can tell that R didn’t want to trust the certainty of his adoption in case it got taken away from him. Just like the many times that it seemed Katie would not make her way into our arms, R is hesitant to trust that he has found his forever family. I’m incredibly happy to say that B will officially become R in two days! Chris and I are planning a welcome home dinner for the new family upon their return to PIP. Even on his worst days, this boy completely owns my heart, much like my sassy little Katiebell. Congratulations Mr. R on finding your forever family and on your upcoming gotcha day:)
*I couldn't post a picture of R, but this picture reminds me of the during and after of the adoption process. The house looks identical in the reflection, except there is a small yet noticeable difference. The difference in R's general being is almost identical to the light shining in the reflection, it's bright and captures your attention.
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