It only works if you have every piece.

It’s strange to look back and realize we’ve been living inside the prologue for five years now, not a neat, tidy lead-in but a full-blown prequel trilogy. Twists, turns, side quests, the whole vault-of-doors chase scene. A setup so long it could have had its own merch line.

But lately, the journey has started to feel different. It feels like that final moment in Monsters, Inc. when the repaired door is almost ready. Every fragment matters. Every click counts. And when that last piece finally slides into place, the quiet hum of magic returns.

That’s where we are now. Hands trembling a little. Hearts pounding a lot. Holding the final pieces of this long, winding story and finally feeling chapter one warming on the horizon.

What we didn’t expect was that the last piece of the door would be the least enchanting part. To legally become the parents of our daughter, we have to complete a few very “magical” tasks:

• Background checks

• Fingerprinting

• A court appearance before a judge

Exactly the montage you imagine, right?

It feels strange and invasive and, honestly, pretty demeaning to be vetted for the privilege of loving a child who is already ours in every way except paperwork. It’s like the door we’ve been chasing all this time suddenly saying, “Great, now hand over your fingerprints.”

But here’s the thing: even in the middle of all that un-sparkly rigmarole, something extraordinary has been happening right alongside it.

Our village has been throwing celebrations big enough to make Pixar jealous.

Different rooms, different themes, different people, all threaded together by the same bright, buoyant joy. Walking into each one felt like stepping through a new door into a scene built by people who love her already. It carried that Pixar kind of magic, the whole crew stepping in at just the right moment, offering exactly what we didn’t know we needed.

We walked in with five years of exhaustion on our backs. We walked out floating.

Your love, your planning, your gifts, your time — all of it has shaped the world she’s about to land in. You’ve created this warm, brilliant universe for her before she’s even taken her first breath.

And yes, there’s a little shimmer under everything lately. It's that feeling you get right before a new era announces itself with a quiet sense that somewhere, something is whispering, “We’ve been waiting for you.”

Not loudly.

Not obviously.

Just enough to sparkle when we look back someday.

So here we are, pushing through the last odd steps, checking the final boxes, and reaching for the door we’ve been chasing across five years of story-building.

The moment it opens, the real story begins. And we can’t wait to meet the little girl on the other side.