SO Official!

It has been a while, so this is a long post filled with lots of goodies - make sure to scroll to the very end:)

Well, it has been a big week in our home. Our re-adoption and finalization hearing took place on Wednesday. Just one day before our reunion two weeks ago, we received a phone call from the attorney's office advising that they had an opening April 23 and would we like it? I needed no time to respond - YES!!

Emily had an in-service from school that day (perfect) and my dad would just be between business trips (perfect)and Rob was just starting a job at my parents' home, so no heavy explaining to the customers why he'd be taking a day off (perfect).

Tuesday, Hannah seemed a bit out of sorts and as the day progressed, her little cheeks flushed more and more. Uh oh. By 1:00, she was raging quite the fever and not feeling well. "Noooo, not the day before the hearing", my mind screamed, but that wasn't going to make her better or relieve my angst. I made an appointment with a favorite nurse practitioner at the pediatrician's office. Hannah loves her, we call her Dr. Barbara. As we waited, in the waiting room, Hannah saw her emerge from one of the exam rooms, clapped her hands and yelled out "Bawbwa! Hi Bawbwa!"

Dr. Barbara confirmed a double ear infection. Poor baby. She also said depending on what kind of night we had, she felt it would be okay to keep our appointment. Yea, Dr. Barbara! Hannah slept pretty well Tuesday night (one wake-up for meds but she was downright pleasant) and so the hearing was a go!

We had our twelve month post placement in the hallway with our social worker and then waited for the judge to call us in. Emily was so excited I thought she was going to explode!
Waiting...
Waiting...



The courtroom was incredibly NOT Law and Order, a dark little room with a long table and no windows. The judge and bailiff sat at the very front and called our attorney in first, for questioning, to which our social worker said, "Oh my, that has never happened before." GREAT! We would learn later, the judge was uncertain how to pronounce Hannah's Chinese name and wanted to be sure he did not offend our family - I thought that was really cool. Then came the total awesomeness of this experience. We got settled, and they advised we would need to be sworn in, to which Emily stood up and placed her little hand on the Bible, as well. (They would be asking her no questions) but these incredible people went right along having her swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and asking each of us to give our name and any spellings...Rob and I both give our information and then they look at Em, "Oh, umm Emily, E-M-I-L-Y and I can spell my last name too." And she did.

The attorney and judge spoke about the father/daughter relationship and the mother/daughter relationship and advised us that we cannot change our minds, she is "now as though born to us" . Yup, okee dokee, uh huh, sure thing, been that way since we saw her sweet face - we were elated. Em was incredibly disappointed the judge had no gavel to conclude, but was soothed by the prospect of taking a picture with him and was awed by his height.

Yes, I know my eyes are closed, but it was the best of the bunch!


This event was, in all reality, a formality. A formality, that I will remember all the days of my life. This day, I remember a whole other family who loved Hannah and gave us the blessing of raising her and loving her. And remarkably, she loves us right back, that excites me to no end! Hannah did beautifully, even feeling punky and certainly not herself, she was a trooper.

End of the story???? NOOOO, in fact this part is for all the families waiting. I stayed with Hannah and my mom, while Rob and Emily and the other grandparents walked the distance to go get the cars. On their way, Emily spotted a grouping of dandilions and could not resist the urge to get one. And can you imagine what was on the botoom of the lovely flower she picked????
Look closely...

A sweet little ladybug reminding us of all the babies in China - I used to tell Emily that everytime we spotted a ladybug, Hannah was thinking of us in China - Emily set the cutie-pie free so that others families would know their babies were thinking of them


See? I knew it was the perfect day! (More pictures and fun to come, stay tuned:)