Adoption

Tuesday April 12th was our hearing to adopt our sweet little baby! It was such a great day. I kept the kids home from school so that we could go celebrate together. Back in 2006 when we adopted Austin and Karlee we took them both to Build A Bear to buy a very special teddy to commemorate the big day and to also have a keepsake. Of course we had to do the same for Blake so off to the store we went! The kids had fun picking out an animal that best resembled Blake. 

Karlee helping fill the monkey with stuffing.

Austin was making sure it was squeezable enough!

This is the part where they pick out a heart and do some special preparation before putting it inside of the monkey. It's really cute to watch the kids follow the instructions.

This is the kids getting ready to give the monkey his first bath.

Rub a dub dub!

My sweet boy.

Here's Blake with his new toy! We got a monkey to match his chimpanzee hair!
(I'm sure you'll appreciate this one B!)

Getting monkey dressed.

Karlee's turn.

After we made the monkey for Blake it was time to pack things up and head to the court house. I don't know why but even typing this I get butterflies! While waiting for our turn the caseworker was filling us in on the details of the paperwork and noticed that Blake's birth mother had showed up. WHAT?!?! That really threw me off. I had no intentions of meeting or ever seeing her in person. Mostly because of her background and why Blake ended up with us. Luckily she just sat on the bench in the hallway and didn't cause a scene. AND, we didn't try to call attention to ourselves either. We just walked by her into the courtroom as if we had no idea who she was or who anyone else was for that matter. So after all of that mumbo jumbo, we made it to the hearing. During the hearing our lawyer asks us some questions about how we've bonded with Blake and so forth. As we were answering the question's Jason was holding Blake. He was being his cute self until........he started passing gas! Ha ha ha! Then came the poop! It was so funny. He was grunting through the hearing so loud that the judge even started to chuckle and said "Sounds like he's making a gift for you!". It was great that the judge had a sense of humor about it all. We finally made it through the hearing and Judge Nolan signed the papers and made it official!! YES! I love how the judges take pictures with the newly adoptive family. What a great photo for the archives!

Our attorney and my parents and niece deserve a big thanks for coming and supporting us!
(Of course with out the attorney nothing would have been finalized! LOL)