Thursday, June 18, 2009

Readoption Started

Joey and I, along with Bre, met with a lawyer today to start the paperwork on readopting her in the state of Missouri.
For those of you who don't understand or know why we would do this-let me explain.
Right now Bre does not have a US birth certificate. She has all her paperwork from China which has been translated into English. Without a birth cer. she will have to drag all this paperwork with her any time the situation calls for a BC. If we readopt her then the state will issue her a Missouri BC that lists Joey and myself as her parents at birth. She can then use her BC as everyone else does and be able to keep all those Chinese documents put up same and sound.
We were really torn on what to do. We are not trying to fool anyone into thinking she was born to us. I also feel as if this might be seen as the last step of wiping out her life prior to us in China. That is NOT what this is about, this is about making her life easier. Who would want to drag in a folder full of paperwork instead of one simple piece of paper stating their identity? Plus we couldn't imagine trying to register her for school in a year from now with nothing but Chinese documents.
We also decided on one other very important detail today. We were given the option of changing her name if we wished. Instead of just Breanna Grace she will legally be Breanna Lin Grace. I can not begin to express how much regret I had about not keeping any of her Chinese name. Her Chinese name is beautiful, Lin Jing Yi. I feel as if we were able to make that right with her today. We chose "Lin" because it represents the city in which she lived before meeting us, Yulin City.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steph,
I don't think that anyone would think you are trying to "fool" them. Bre is yours. You should be listed as her parents on her birth certificate, you are her parents. You have been honest with her and she will know everything you could possibly share with her about where she came from. This is a wonderful thing, not something to worry about! I can't wait until the day I get to change Tristen's birth certificate! She is MY daughter and the only thing that says she's not is that tiny paper. Feel blessed!

Sarah