Little Lassie is in our family - finally and forever. I wish I could say it didn’t make any difference, that she felt like my child from the beginning, but the paper from our lawyer saying she is ours did make a difference in an odd way. In my head, I kept rolling the phrase around- she’s ours. I don’t think of children as possessions, but thats how we talk isn’t it? This is MY daughter. This is OUR child. I’ve been saying that from the beginning and even gotten an official letter from the court confirming it. It still didn’t sit right especially after receiving the letter. I wasn’t sure why. I kept thinking I was flawed. This was one more indication we were a family put together with band-aids, a fragile bond at best.

Then, it occurred to me. She’s not ours. We are HERS. We are her parents, her caretakers, her teachers and her foundation. We don’t own Little Lassie. Little Lassie owns us. And after figuring that out, it finally felt right.