Today was a very big day for our family, it was Sophia's Adoption Day! Today we went to court and a judge finalized Sophia's adoption. We could have done this in the mail, but we preferred to do it in court. It seemed more official this way. Both sets of grandparents came, and we also invited Christy from the adoption agency and all the people who were references for us with the agency: Paul's brother Barry, my coworker Janet, our friend Joanne, and our friend Derek who came with his sons Gabe and Alex. Our other reference Christina couldn't come because she is at a conference in
Idaho and she was greatly missed. Our lawyer Robin was also there.The judge really put effort into making this a special event for all of us. She talked about the duties we were taking on as a parents, and the duties Sophia has as our child to obey us and care for us (I'm hoping we get a copy of this speech to have Sophia read at a latter date). She had us promise to take good care of her, and she had our family and friends promise to love her and take care of her.
The most amazing part was that Sophia was fast asleep during all of the gathering and waiting. But as soon as court started she woke right up and watched the judge the entire time she was talking. She paid close attention! When the judge does adoptions of older children she usually has the child come up and bang the gavel at the end. Sophia is kind of small for that, so she invited our friend Alex to do it. We all got a kick out of that.After some pictures with the judge we all went back to our house for a
nice lunch and time to hang out and play together. It was a very special day and it's amazing to me that after this long journey we have a child of our very own. She's quite a miracle!
