When we were creating our adoption profile, I realized that what we offer our kids above all is family. Let me tell you: I’m pretty sure Griffin is held at least half of every day. And Lilou isn’t far behind: multiple adults and her siblings hold her, feed her, walk her and play with her every minute. Aside from the relief of so many helping hands, we just love watching these two become part of this loud and affectionate family.

Absorbing a child into a horde is such a fast process. Within minutes, they both clearly knew they’d found their people. I wish the universe made it easier for us to see all of the amazing people in our lives more frequently. What I’m finding is that the awesome people multiply and move, making it impossible to do more than blunt the missing as much as possible with visits catch as catch can.

I don’t think we realized it until this point, but we were lightly holding our breath. How would people take our kids, especially when we’re springing two adoptions on them at once and they don’t get to spend regular time with our babies? As with all worries adoption-related, we needn’t have bothered. Pretty much every relative, including my in-law’s in-laws, steals babies at every opportunity and declares them communal treasures! So the lesson is learned again and again: kids are kids, and we all embrace them no matter how or when they joined the family!

Dave and I made the decision to adopt for ourselves and revel in how perfect and beautiful our family is, but no one said anyone else had to be on board. Yet all we’ve gotten from family and friends throughout this entire process is love, and I adore that our kids will wallow in that love every minute of their lives.

Lilou has been with us for over a month. As she giggled her way through a half an hour of just her and Dave and I, I thought,

How did we ever feel like a family without her?

The photo I took of Tess meeting her sister may be my phone screen saver for years. The joy and awe on her threenager face was indescribable. As we start to gear up for fall and preschool, we’re trying to cram as many summer adventures and as much family time into the remaining sunshine days as possible. Dave calls this our summer of good fortune; I can’t argue.