Introducing Anthony James

Before I can write about anything else I need to introduce you to Anthony - "AJ" -  and share his story. The past three weeks have been filled full of fun and quick learning with having an 18 month old in the Hanson household. We wouldn't want it any other way!

Here's the timeline of how all of this came to be:

• April 24, 2007 - We attended an informational meeting in St. Cloud with Lutheran Social Service.  That night we turned in our application and officially started the process of adopting a child.
• April to July - We worked on paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork...
• July 20th - The paperwork is done!  We attended a one day training at LSS in Minneapolis.  
• End of July through the beginning of September - We completed our home study (it took weeks instead of months) and worked on writing/finalizing our four page profile before the school year started up again. (Thanks Auntie Manda for all of your wonderful help!)
• Early August - We attended a one day cross cultural training at LSS in Minneapolis.
• September 10th - Our profile is in the book and we begin the waiting process.
• October 2nd - On this day we found out a birthmom wanted to have a match meeting with us only 23 days after sending in our profile.
• October 3rd - We meet the birthmom and her baby at LSS in Minneapolis for about two hours.  In the end it turned out she wanted to try parenting instead of adoption...

• February 18th - On President's Day, Monday, around noon our social worker called to tell us about Anthony, his birthmom and our match meeting for Wednesday.
• February 20th - This was the day we had been waiting for!  Even thinking back on it now it all seems a bit surreal and truly God's gift of joining us all together.  We met in Minneapolis at 10:00 and the meeting goes really well.  The conversation flows and we truly enjoy the birthmom, Cynthia.   At 11:20 while we are letting the car warm up we get a call from Cynthia and her social worker.  She lets us know that she's selected us and is hoping we are willing to be Anthony's parents.  From that point on it was quite the whirlwind of a day - we chatted some more, met Anthony for the first time and set up a plan to have him transition into our home.  We were beyond elated and already in love with the little guy!  (We also called and told our parents when we got home!  It was fun to finally share the news with them and hear their shock/excitement!)
• February 23rd - We spent Saturday morning with Anthony at Ed and Sally's house - the foster home he was staying at.  He played with us on the floor and was very comfortable by our presence.  It felt awesome to just be by him and know that he was getting to know who we were.
• February 24th - On Sunday we picked him up at 1:00 and brought him to his new home for the day.  We spent the whole day playing and helping him adjust to his new doggy.  He was definitely interested right away with Zoey, but a bit skiddish.  That quickly changed. By supper time there were good pals and Zoey was enjoying all of the extra yummy treats he was feeding her.  We brought him back a little after 7:00, which was hard to do.  We didn't want to part with him, but knew he was in good hands and that our time would come soon.
• February 27th - PLACEMENT DAY!  We met again at Sally and Ed's house with Cynthia and her social worker to work on some paperwork - placement day "stuff".  It was an emotional afternoon, but an extremely beautiful one.  We truly love Anthony as a son and are so happy to have Cynthia in our lives too.  She is our hero and will always be...

At times it seemed like it took FOREVER to become parents, but when I look back on the timeline I realize it only took ten months.  How amazing!  We've had friends who have tried even longer to get pregnant.  We definitely are blessed!

So where do we go from here?  As of 4:30 on March 12th we were officially out of the legal risk period.  Cynthia has made up her mind that this is what's best for him.  On Tuesday she will be visiting Anthony's new home and we'll work out a plan for our open adoption.  Then we'll just need to work on legally making him Anthony Hanson, which means more paperwork and some court dates.  

I've never been more happy to fill out paperwork...