To Javi from Mom on Finalization Day

My dearest Javier,

I know there will be many days when you question how you ended up here.  I know you will struggle inside with questions about the circumstances of your birth and your birthparents.  I know that one day you will ask me and your dad if your birth parents really loved you. I know that one day in desperate anger, you will likely scream something at me like, "You're not even my real mother!"

I know this struggle will hurt you at times. I will want to hold you tight and rock you like a baby.  And I will for as long as you will let me.  But I know that as you grow, you will be tasked with finding your own peace inside.

I pray that in those moments of questioning and struggle that sometimes you will be able to look back at pictures from this very day. And I hope that in those pictures you can see the depth and breath of what it means to have all of us here: your family.

To each of us, we have gathered here without question - we have gathered here without forethought, because it is natural to us that you have always been ours.

All my love,

Mom