The Day We Became a Family by Kaylin Lindsey

This is something I haven't really talked much about on the blog because I didn't know if it was "appropriate." I was afraid someone would be mad that I was sharing this part of our life. However, this summer one of the biggest moments of our life took place, and with it being National Adoption Month, I wanted to share our story. Although our adoption story isn't like the "traditional" stories, it's OURS and I wanted to share it.

I wrote a post awhile back called The Dad He Didn't Have To Be. All of that post is still true to this day, except one major thing has changed since writing that post. Michael officially became a dad, on paper, as of July 16th, 2015. Baby girl was adopted, and it was one of the best days of my entire life. We have always been a family. Since day one, we've been a family. Something about having it "official on paper" was life changing. All three of us now share the same last name. How exciting is that?! It's a big step to decide to adopt someone's child. You are stepping up and taking on all responsibility for that child, NO MATTER WHAT. Michael told me that he never second guessed his decision. I know God brought him into our life to not only be my husband, but to be the fully devoted and present father baby girl deserves.

I missed out on a lot of things having a baby at 19. One of those things were newborn pictures. Everyone these days has the cutest pictures of their new baby cub in adorable poses and cheesy outfits. With big changes happening in our family, such as baby girl getting officially adopted, we wanted to do something special to commemorate the occasion. So, we staged a newborn photo shoot. With a five year old. HAHA! I may not have gotten these pictures when she was little, but we have them now that we're a family of three. Yes, this is meant to be silly. But we also got some amazing family shots out of it, and we love them SO much! We have loved this process, we have loved the changes, and we loved doing this shoot.