Finally it is all final...

Today was a pretty cool day. It's crazy to think that as of today, we won't ever have to do any adoption paperwork or meetings for our little Emsley ever again. We can now say that she WAS adopted rather than IS (I mean, I've been saying that for a while now but still!). Today, we stood before a judge, were sworn in, and were told that she is all ours, legally and completely ours in every sense of the word. Can't you tell how excited and blessed I am feeling right now?!?!

I want to give a brief overview of what went on before I post all the pics (especially since my sister couldn't be there...I want her to know it all!) We arrived at the Family Court in Orange at around 1:20 or so and headed through security to connect with our lawyer and wait for them to call our Case Number. John Madison (our wonderful attorney) showed up shortly after and went over all the paperwork he had drawn up with us so we would be well informed when we stood before the judge. We then found out we were #4 so we didn't have too many people in front of us. So then we had about 45 minutes or an hour to wait till we were called in. My parents, Mike's mom and sister, and a few friends from our small group were there and patiently waited with us. Emsley was a little upset she couldn't just crawl around in the busy hallway and play with the other kids. But she did great and loved being the center of attention (like she doesn't get that often enough!)

Then at around 2:30, they called us in and we stood in the room in from of Judge Caryl Lee. The clerk first swore us in then the judge proceeded to check the general info (spelling of Emsley's name, etc). She then told us that in signing these Adoption Order forms, we are taking full responsibility of Emsley and all that that encompasses. She will be ours and we are to care for her for her life. Of course we agreed because we already do that!! We then signed our papers and took some pictures with the judge before heading out. Last was to get the official documents from John and we went back to our house for some snacks and to just see more of Emsley (let's be honest!)

So here are the pictures, in order of the day. Starting with our waiting to it all being FINAL!!