Sisters.

Lucie is our adoptive daughter. Maggie is our biological daughter. And ever since we brought Lucie home, the same comment keeps coming back to us, "They look like they belong together!" I agree with that. They look like sisters to me. Maggie loves her baby sister. She is so protective of her already, and she already is giving her advice. Just the other day, she whispered to Lucie, "You can be anything you want when you get older....a princess, a queen, but not an alligator." Okay, she is almost five years old, and that advice made sense to her!!! Lucie's eyes light up as soon as she sees Maggie. She smiles the most and starts cooing the loudest when Maggie is around.

I know that many people struggle with whether to adopt or not. One of the greatest issues when it comes to deciding to adopt is wanting the child that comes into your life to look like you. And I confess, as we decided to go the adoption route, I had to allow myself to grieve that our next child would not look like us, because he/she would not be our biological child. When I allowed myself to grieve that AND let it go, I knew that I was ready to adopt. And when I could let that go, it also opened up some new possibilities that we had not opened ourselves up to before---adopting a biracial baby. And when we opened ourselves to the possibility of adopting biracially, within just a few short months, we welcomed Lucie into our family.

Lucie is biracial, and she is beautiful. She has been embraced by her family, her church family, and all of our friends. And you know what, she fits perfectly into our family. I cannot imagine our lives without her.