Today Mr. P went to the Social Security office to obtain a card/number for A. He needed to take all of the official documents we currently have for A. (at least until the readoption takes place later this year and we can get a US birth certificate and a final adoption decree). I made Mr. P promise to guard everything with his life. These documents are priceless … not just because they are irreplaceable and if anything should happen to them, our son will essentially have the legal status of a cat, but also because of his facial expressions, which run the gamut from teary (that would be his Ethiopian birth certificate, issued just prior to leaving Ethiopian so it has our names on it — it’s the earliest-known photograph of A. and also the first photograph we saw of him when we got our referral) to surprised (his Certificate of Citizenship, issued upon entry to the US, although the picture was taken a few weeks before in Addis Ababa) to terrified (Ethiopian passport, from the same photo session as the Certificate of Citizenship — you can see the white of his eyes, poor boy.)
