Finally-Finalization day!

Today was a wonderful day for our family. We finalized the adoption of our daughter in county court this morning! We are officially her parents-forever! No longer a family of three-we are officially, legally a family of four! It's an indescribable feeling only an adoptive parent would truly understand!

It was almost one year ago to the day that I was stressing over our first homestudy visit and cleaning our house from top to bottom. We've come full circle in a year! We've had our daughter for 6 1/2 months already!

The judge was so nice. They asked our permission if two law students from Italy that are interning in the court can witness it and we said yes. Our file has always been in surrogates court and not family court since the get-go. To finalize an adoption is a rare thing for surrogates court and I think everyone involved enjoyed the rare opportunity! The judge joked how the baby was sticking her tongue out at the judge. Then he asked our older daughter if she officially wanted a little sister, because this would make it legal-she said very loudly and proudly "Yes I do!". We were so proud of her too!

We had a big family turnout for the event. My sister came. My parents, DH's parents and my grandparents-who are 80 and 90!!! I can't believe they traveled to witness this. My grandmother attended a finalization 55 years or so ago for her niece. How many people can say they witnessed two finalizations in their lifetime! Here's a wonderful picture of our entire family in the judge's chambers! Too bad the little lady of honor was the only one not looking at the camera!!! We had a nice lunch with our families afterward!

For everyone who is adopting domestically (especially those going the independent adoption route)-please know that it's all worth it 1000 times over. All the ups and downs, waiting, worrying, disappointments, the scams, the cost, etc. DO NOT GIVE UP. If you persist and do everything in your power to put yourselves in front of potential birthmothers-it will happen!!! And when it does, you are left with a precious new life and a lifetime of happiness!!