Finally!

Just wanted to post to let everyone know that we finalized on Friday afternoon!

We arrived a few minutes early as our attorney advised us to because she wanted to meet with us prior to going into the chambers to sign some documents. We literally had the entire waiting room area to ourselves which was very cool because he wandered around looking at the paintings and sat at the little peoples desk and enjoyed himself and looked outside at the city and expressway.

We were able to take some pictures in peace and just relax until the staff returned from lunch. Then we were escorted back to our assigned judges chambers by our attorney and case worker. I want to say that Fridays must be light days for that particular building or floor that I was on because it was not a lot of traffic and I am thankful.

Prior to going back there, we saw one of our friends that works as a court reporter and we met her through close friends of ours years ago and she attends our church. Guess what? She actually works for the judge and she was so tickled to see us. I had no idea that she worked in that building and worked for that judge! I knew that she was still working that job sat times, but they are also part owners in a large entertainment establishment here and I thought that she was running that full time and I forgot that she reports from time to time.
She was so happy and did not realize that we were finalizing. When I saw her going into the hallway, I called out and she came over and said she would come to see us before the signing. She was so excited and happy and she sent my girlfriend a message that we were there doing our finalization, even though she was not apart of the finalization. It is so funny and amazing how things work out and how people are put into your path.

It was so quick and we had a ball. The judge and her office staff fell in love with him. He actually received a whole basket of toys, and I was advised when we arrived that they typically only give one toy away. So, I guess we are a little special! (Wink Wink!!)


We took pictures with the judge and I took pictures of my son's caseworker, my son and husband. Although the signing and swearing only took a few minutes with our attorney and the judge, we actually shared the story with the judge of how everything happened and she was so thrilled. She also commented on how he blended so well with us and favored my husband a lot and she enjoys seeing happy endings and we discussed adoption in general. It was a wonderful meeting and the judge told me to send her pictures that we took us and her signing. We are actually going to send her a thank you card with a personal picture of my son in addition to our group shots and of her signing.

It has been a busy week and I am still behind with posting, with traveling to family events out of state, and having his final baby shower on Saturday (yesterday). I am relaxing this week and I plan on doing some posting here! I will be posting pictures from his shower as well. I have not had a voice since last Friday due to my allergies, so I sound really bad and I just need to relax and give my throat some downtime and hopefully my sinus drainage will stop. I am so excited about catching up some on this blog!

Our attorney advised us that we should be receiving his new birth certificate, with his name change within a few weeks and what to do from that point with getting a new ss number and such. She also advised us about the Federal tax credit that we get and the state credit.
We are exciting about applying for his passport so that he will be able to travel internationally with us. Oh, and by the way, our attorney is an adoptive parent as well, so it was a very good experience for us. We mentioned in the finalization that we would like to eventually adopt another child in the future, a baby girl. We have a few eyes looking out for us as well. It is always good to have those extra eyes and ears who have your best interest and know what kind of parent you are and know that things will be alright with a placement!

We thank God for his favor on us with this placement and how quickly things went for us, and how blessed we are with our son. We got off to a slow and rocky start, however, once we changed agencies and continued to be prayerful, everything fell into place. Words can't express our joy.

Like I've said before, God gives you more than you can imagine, if you let him handle things.
I am so glad that I was patient and waited and never gave up. He gave me what I needed and I was not anxious. I have a son that loves learning about the Lord, is happy when he wakes up, loves hugs, is friendly with everyone, is very intelligent and loves to learn new things and is absolutely adorable. He is more than what I could have ever asked for. He is going through his toddler stage, however, even with the stubborn episodes, he is still a well rounded child.

(Standing in front of daddy, patiently waiting to go back into the chambers...He wants to say, "Really, all of the pictures and who are all of these people???)
(This basket was filled with brand new toys, books, cars and dvd etc from top to bottom. My baby received the whole basket from the judge as a gift! What a surprise! His caseworker and our attorney were across the table in the background)

Update...and signing!

Updates......and more!

Well, I have truly been absent from the blogging scene over the past few months! I am still going to work my way from the past to the current. I will definitely bring everyone up to date from the past few months to the current month. I promise that I will. You all know that I have all of the pictures of him and events, however, I jut have not made time to share things up here weekly or as often as I would like to. So, get prepared for a parade of pictures soon and mass updating!

First, I wanted to share that we signed the papers today and we should have our finalization date very soon! Our case workers advised us that it will more than likely be this month. They felt as though the transition was great and they contacted us advised us that we can go ahead and move forward with signing the paper to get finalized instead of waiting until the 6 month period.
This was pretty quick and we are so thankful to God that this has been so sweet after all. We arrived to our agency this afternoon to go over the paperwork and sign and it was done within 30 minutes actually. We stayed much longer afterwards because a few of other caseworkers who knew my son or had heard of him/us stopped by during the visit to see him and were amazed at his growth in such a short time period. I can't figure out how so many people know that we are coming! We always seem to have a crowd! It is all good, because they are like a family there and they are happy to see the end result be positive. I still didn't get to two see my old caseworker who did our home study and her teaching partner who did the class. I am sure they are going to have a word for me being that they didn't know because they were on a different floor. I guess I will have to take him up there next week to see the others on the other floor who also played a major role. The head adoption administrator also came to the conference room for a minute to sit with us. My son's old caseworker actually sat and played with him while we signed papers and went through a few documents.

We are very pleased with our process. The fact that we are adopting an AA male that is no longer a number with AA babies that need to be adopted is a great feeling. AA males are high priority as well. I will also share some of the perks for the child as far as going the route that we did. We are encouraging other close friends to move forward as well and helping them through the process.

Meanwhile, I will have to update and share all of the things that we have been doing since my little one has arrived. I have so much to share. We traveled, are traveling more and preparing for his last and third baby shower and that a wonderful and dear friend is hosting locally for us. I will share the details of that event afterwards as well.

We have also been guest speakers with the agency to talk to a group of families completing the process. It was exciting and we felt good about coming and speaking to the families on a Friday night about our journey and giving them hope. Of course, they wanted us to bring our little one and he was the delight! It was amazing because we were just one of the families sitting in there back in September. I don't think we finished speaking to the group that night until about 9:30 or 10 pm. We really enjoyed giving others hopes and sharing our journey with 12 to 14 other families. There were people with cameras taking pictures and all. They were very excited and vocal families!

We were invited to come speak and told to arrive towards the end of their final segment. Therefore, we actually had a grand entrance since we had to walk in this big group and they had no idea of who was coming. The other wonderful parent who came was a dear friend of mine who has the little baby girls in her care. We met her back in September and held those precious twins and helped out with them after we finished the class and they still act like they know us! The families in the class heard from 2 perspectives, ours, as the new family and the other parent as a seasoned foster mom.

We told them that we did not mind coming to speak at all. So, I am sure that we will be guest speaking even more. The ladies who actually taught our class are the ones who held the class that we spoke to. One of the instructors was my actual home study caseworker and we are all like family now.

I will also be sharing how I had some "ghost" followers who had been following my journey for a long time and 2 of them emailed me personally and shared the joy with me and told me who they were and thanked me for being up front and honest on my blog about my feelings and experience going through the process. Both emails literally brought tears to my eyes when I read them because I just did not realize how many people were really following my story, but did not necessarily comment or have a blog themselves.

It was very touching to me and I am thankful to the wonderful emails from both ladies who I had never had discussions with prior to my son's placement. I guess it proves that this blog community is truly a positive resource for many. You know who you are, and I want to thank you for personally contacting me and silently and prayerfully cheering for me although I did not even know you existed! It means a lot. Little did I know, but both ladies who contacted me have roots as I do in my home state! That was the icing on the cake!

So, stay tuned! The pictures and updates are coming. I am on a more relaxed schedule and I hope to update weekly while I have this time.

( He is with 2 of caseworkers, an old original caseworker and the current one on the floor playing with him while we signed at the conference table with the administrators. I cropped the pictures to take them out and cropped some of my watermark. Yes, that is one of his cw's taking a picture of him with her camera because she is amazed at his growth and language in a short period.)

2 months as 3!

Today is our 2nd month having our little one!

It has been absolutely a blast! I will have to catch up and move from March up until now to share pictures and bring everyone up to date. We have been enjoying ourselves and it has been a wonderful experience. We have been blessed to transition a little one into our home with no adjustment issues. I have to give All of the credit to God!

We have not had any transition issues and even the case workers noted that he seemed as though he has been with us since birth and they rarely see a toddler transition so easily. Lots of prayer before he came and lots of prayer while we were waiting is the answer to that mystery!

I promise to post some pictures and catch the blog up. Since his arrival, we have celebrated his birthday, he has started attending a private Christian academy, we have had 2 showers and we have one more that is being planned locally. He has traveled out of state with us for his 2nd shower that was given by my family. So, we will have lots of updating to do. We have been blessed beyond measure and I can't wait to share all of the greatness!

I have a few things to blog about! Thanks for still following and being patient with me. I have been enjoying my baby and blogging has been on the backseat. However, I know that it is helpful to share the experiences.