Happy Adoption Day!

Waiting for our hearing to begin.

Aunt Mary, Uncle Tom, Grandma and Grandpa sit in the front row of the courtroom.

Waiting around is tough work.

Yay! It's official!

Cake to celebrate!

Balloons, too!

Aunt Mary and Grandma sign their books.

"Over the Moon," An adoption tale.

Today was Faith and Grace's adoption day! Grandma and Grandpa G and Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom attended the court hearing with us.

We are now a legal family! We had a celebration with cake afterwards and we also gave the girls a gift to remember this day.

Everyone, including my parents (who couldn't be there), signed a book for each of them called, "Over the Moon." It's a colorful adoption tale about a long-awaited baby girl who was born. The adoptive parents who had been dreaming of her fly over the moon to bring her home. We hope this book will become one of their favorite stories and as they get older, they can look back on what we wrote inside and remember this special day. Although our adoption file is now closed, this is just the beginning of new adventures as a family. We feel incredibly blessed and we thank God for our beautiful, healthy and happy daughters.

We saw a glimpse of how sweet and gracious God is today...

Typically a judge would do our hearing but the court called us a couple of weeks ago and told us that the judge would not be able to be there today. We would have to reschedule for a later date or the alternative: keep the same date and have a Commissioner do the hearing instead. The only thing that really mattered to us was having the hearing completed so we said that the Commissioner would be fine. As we posed for the picture above with Commissioner Mike McCoy, he congratulated us, shook our hands, and said this...

"I know this is a special day for you. It's also a special day for me. Let me tell you why...." Then he choked back tears before he could speak. He said that when he was 12 years-old, he was adopted by his step-dad and he has never forgotten that day. Adoption was something that was dear to his heart and he was genuinely filled with emotion when he talked about it. It was a special moment for all of us to witness. God knew exactly what He was doing in putting us together today. This is one to remember for the blessing box!

Aside from filing a couple of other legal forms, we are now done!

How fitting that tomorrow just happens to be National Adoption Day. Now in it's 7th year, National Adoption Day is celebrated on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It is a collaborative national effort to raise awareness about the 114,000 children in foster care waiting to find permanent, loving families. It's also a day to celebrate all families who adopt! National Adoption Day makes the dreams of thousands of children come true by working with courts, judges, attorneys, and advocates to finalize their adoptions into permanent families.