a piece of paper and a picture of the gospel

Today, the original adoption documents arrived from our agency in America, signed and notarized by the state of Tennessee.  Our job was to check the box next to "We accept the adoptee mentioned above," and sign our names as the adoptive father and mother. 

Check.  Sign.  You better believe it.

I keep looking at this document.  What gets me every time is her identity: institutionalized child whose birth parents cannot be ascertained.  What kind of an identity is that?  It doesn't say: child created by G0D for his amazing purposes.  It doesn't say:  beautiful daughter desperately wanted by her parents.   It doesn't say:  creature of infinite worth.

It does now.