Day 26: Not Much Else Matters

It feels like we found the buried treasure and now that we have, not much else matters. Before getting Rex, we were very motivated to follow the next steps in the process. We had to get fingerprints in Philadelphia, so we drove to Philadelphia. We had to schedule a psychological exam, so we showed up and bared our souls. We had to fork out adoption fees, so we wrote out the checks. You know how it goes when you're fixed on something--you do the work early or right on time.

When we were cleared to travel, we had our plane tickets that same day. When we had to send pictures, we cleared our schedule to be photographed. When our case workers emailed, we replied back immediately. We didn't hesitate to do our part. It seemed like the quicker we acted, the quicker we'd be with Rex. We were focused, we were ready, we were chasing buried treasure. But then something happened to slow us down. We got Rex.

Suddenly things didn't seem so urgent anymore. Suddenly emails from our case workers didn't cause my palms to sweat. Suddenly letters from the Embassy didn't cause my heart to speed. Suddenly, the rush, it all stopped. I stopped regarding days as things to get through and started enjoying them. I stopped explaining to Asia what a brother is and watched her find out for herself. I stopped imagining Colette with a son and saw it happen. And I, I stopped planning things for my boy and started doing them with him. We still have steps to take to complete the adoption, but we're not moving as fast as we once did, because when you have the treasure, not much else matters.