We Are Family

With the judge after the adoption

Well it's finally over.  The adoption was finalized on Friday March 5th.  We made the drive over to Los Angeles Thursday afternoon and got our hotel in Old Town Pasadena.  Sabrina was pretty good, but she got in a power nap for the last hour or so of the drive.  She thought the hotel was just so much fun, and spent from about 9 PM to 11 PM zipping around and having a blast way past her bed time.  In fact, she decided this was fun enough to keep going until around one in the morning.  So what if we were due in court at 11 the next morning for only the most important event in our family so far.  She managed to get up and get ready anyway...

Sassy

One member of our family, Bobby's Hair Spiking Product, was inadvertantly left home.  Driving around the courthouse for forty minutes did not turn up a single store were I could get some.  My signature feature, great hair, is sadly left out of our picture.

Sabrina was the star anyway.  She wore a white satin dress with a lavendar and seafoam stripe.  Gregg and I each matched one of the stripes, to symbolize our new family.  Surprisingly, lots of people at court picked up on it.  (When I showed the dress and shirts to my mother before we left, I could tell in her voice it choked her up a little.  Geez!)

I admit, I was tearing up during the whole proceeding.  I swore I would not cry in front of the judge, but when he pronounced us a family it was just so overwhelming.  They presented Sabrina with a teddy bear, and invited us up to the bench for the picture.  Everyone there was great, and we met a family (Christine and Keyvan and their son Devan) that worked with our agency and were coincidentally there at the same time as us.  Since the court was running behind, talking to them was a great way to ease everyone's minds.  We all had a bit of a challenge explaining our situation to Christine's mother but once she realized that (1) Gregg was not a representative of the adoption agency there to help me, (2) there wasn't going to be a mother and (3) we're Daddy and Papa, it was all cleared up.  She was so wonderful to be there for her grandson, and gave us big hugs when they came out of court.  She was crying, so I blame her for getting me going! (Who am I kidding I was already on the verge!)

Tomorrow I'll tell our story of reuniting with Sabrina's birthmother, sisters, and birth grandmother.

Waiting for the judge with Papa