"Somehow destiny comes into play. These children end up with you and you end up with them. It's something quite magical."
Nicole Kidman
Adoptive Parent
Today was Abby's adoption finalization at Family Court. Her adoption really was final in China when I brought her home 2 1/2 years ago, but now her name is legally changed and her adoption is considered final here in New York, and we have a papertrail with NY documents, instead of just the Chinese ones. I can now send away for a NYS Birth Certificate for her, instead of using the Chinese one which is translated. Now we need to apply for US citizenship for her - I've been very slow with all of this - the time got away from me so many times!
This was a cool thing to do with the whole family since we were not able to all be together for Abby's adoption in China. We had to be at the courthouse at 9 am. It is very neat to sit outside the courtroom with all these other adoptive families. We've had Abby home for quite a while, but for some of these families, today is THE day for them, when they officially become a family- I loved seeing all the families that were formed through adoption - it warms your heart!
We were finally called in and the judge was so, so friendly and kind and made us feel at ease. He asked us a few questions, including what we are doing this summer. He double checked the spelling of Abby's "new" official name, etc. Afterwards, he told us that we seemed like a great family and that we should go and have a wonderful life together. Everybody in the room clapped. He asked the kids to pick out teddy bears, and a woman gave them lollipops. The judge also said he would like to take pictures with us. I've heard that judges like to do adoptions on Fridays because it's the happiest thing that they do in Family Court, and they love leaving for the weekend on a such a nice note. I bet that's true too!
Afterwards, we took the kids to Friendly's and let them pig out on ice cream at 10:30 in the am. We'll be paying for the sugar all day LOL!
Hugs to all!
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2 comments:
Love the pics Kristien! We didn't do a refinalization, I guess I was just too darn tired of the paperwork, I sure hope this doesn't come back to bite me.....haha.
What a lovely day you guys had. Thanks for sharing it.
Leigh
Very cute photos. I have emailed you a couple of times. You may check your spam/junk to make sure they didn't land there.
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