From the time Jill and I met and talked about getting married, we have both always wanted to adopt chidren. I have many adopted cousins in my family and have always felt sort of a calling towards it. We began the process to adopt our first son Marcus in January of 2003. We had no clue the amount of work it would take to adopt a child internationally. After about 5 months of working on paperwork daily we had our file complete. It was about this time that Guatemala had decided to shut down adoptions for a undetermined amount of time. After some soul searching Jill and I decided to stick with Guatemala even though it may take longer than we wanted.
Sometime in the fall we got the great news that Guatemala had opened up adoptions. We were put on a list and on December 15, 2003 I received a call at my school that there was a baby boy for us to adopt. Marcus was born on November 29. His birth name was Joan Andre Lucas Morales. We held the news from our family so we could surprise them at Christmas. The excitement and joy was overwhelming. We finally had a son and we couldn't wait for him to come home. We traveled over Spring Break to visit Marcus in Guatemala. We figured he would come home in the summer so this was a good chance to spend some time with him. We met Marcus the morning after we arrived in Guatemala. It was an instant bond that will never be broken. I was already dreading having to go home. Luckily the next few hours quickly sped up our lives. As our Guatemalan connections were leaving the hotel after dropping Marcus off, they turned around and told us that instead of him coming home in the summer, all the paperwork was done and would be finalized while we were there. It turns out we would not be bringing him home with us that week, but we would be back shortly to bring him home forever. After a week of getting to know Marcus and meeting many other adopting families and children I did the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I left Marcus with his fother mother and went home to get ready for his arrival. I can still remember crying like a baby when he left.
We traveled home and spent the next 3 weeks preparing for his arrival. A one day trip to Kansas City that started at 6:30 am and ended around 4:00 am, produced an entire baby room for Marcus. We were finally called back to Guatemala to bring him home. What an amazing feeling knowing that he was ours forever. We all traveled to the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala to finalize the adoption. I traveled later that day to pick up his Visa. When I got back to the hotel to show Jill the Visa, we got a big surprise. The had listed Marcus as a female on the Visa. Of course I went into complete panic. We were able to get a hold of our contacts in Guatemala and get the problem fixed the next morning. Unfortunately I missed a complete night's sleep over it.
We came home to a great family welcome both at the airport in Kansas City and our home in Manhattan. Marcus was a great baby to travel with on the planes. The car was another story. He cried the entire 2 hour drive home.
And so our lives as parents began. I was able to take the rest of the school year off to stay home with Marcus through the summer. We took lots of walks and my afternoon trips to Target or Wal-Mart became famous. Marcus is now 6 years old and I cannot believe it. As I look back at everything we went through to get him, it all seems so small now. At the time I wondered if it would ever come. Now I just wish it would all slow down.
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