It's Official!!

"Every good and perfect gift is from above"

Yesterday morning, I got up having plenty of time to get out of the house early because our hearing was at 10:15. I got ready, got the girls up and fed, then dressed the girls in their adorable little outfits that daddy had spoiled them with. Got everything ready with time to spare, then picked up Amelia, she had spit up on her blanket and her arm, had a very nasty diaper as well, then I had to search all over the house to find her little hat because Isabella had taken it...... and got out of there later than I had planned - how does this always happen?! :) Thankfully, the rest of the day was much better!! We drove out to daddy's work because to do the adoption hearing telephonically we had to have a notary present and one of the secretary's is a notary. As soon as I got there, we called the court, were sworn in by the judge and Christina (the notary) and actually had a sweet adoption finalization. No, we didn't have the great videotape of us in the courthouse, no pictures with the judge afterwards, but still I got choked up. The whole finalization lasted maybe 15 minutes and we were done. I took the pictures below of Amelia next to the phone with a little headset on -- we wanted to think of a cute way to remember this "phone" finalization! Then I tried to take some pictures of the girls outside and this was the only one where they both were looking, of course daddy was doing something funny to make them laugh and I guess the sun was a little bright in their eyes. We'll have to have another little photo shoot with these cute outfits on!



Later that afternoon, Kenny got off of work and we headed over to Build a Bear. Isabella picked out a cute little dog to make and then we had her help make the bear for Amelia. Our main reason for doing this was because at Isabella's adoption finalization the court gave her a little teddy bear, so we thought we would get one for Amelia to remember this day as well. I have to give a shout out to the guy (I never looked at what his name was) that helped us. He was very nice in talking to Isabella and then when we made Amelia's he asked how old she was (he might have been thinking we were a little crazy to be spending money to make one for a baby) and I mentioned to him that this was also her adoption finalization day so we were here to celebrate. Then he said "Well, in that case, why don't all of you get a little heart to put in the bear" So we each got one, he had Isabella hold it over her heart and close her eyes to make a wish. (I was waiting to hear Isabella start praying instead) Then we kissed the hearts and put them all in the bear. We then of course gave the animals a "bath" and took a couple cute pictures. Then the guy again came over and asked if since this was a special day, did we want him to take a picture of us with their polaroid camera - I guess they have their own "film" because the picture says Build a Bear on the bottom of it. I think they do this for birthday parties. We didn't pick out any clothes (we figure we will hold off on this one until Isabella figures it out for herself) but they did give them a little box full of bows for the animals' ears. It really was a very special time - and it may seem silly, but just the little extra special attention we got made it even better.

After that, we went out to eat with my parents at Bonefish Grill. We had never been there before, but YUM! It was so good! We had thought we were going to try to get family and friends together to celebrate, but with it being on a weeknight, kids having school the next day, etc. - it was just us and my parents. Which is actually, what it was like for Isabella's as well, but we were in California. All together we had a great day full of lots of memories and best of all Amelia is officially ours!!