"Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother." – Oprah Winfrey


"A house that is a home and has happy kids living in it is ALWAYS a mess. When they are gone, you can straighten and dust all you want, but the kids and the mess will be sorely missed." -John Easterling

Monday, November 17, 2008

11/17/2008 Adoption Finalization scheduled

Ahhhhh in almost two weeks, our adoption of Paul will be final. China and Korea are very different. With Lacie our adoption was final in China, and her name was officially changed there and she became a U.S. citizen the day we arrived back in the U.S. WE did not have to do a readoption in state court.

With Paul, it has not been final. I do not know when it was final for Korea, but for the U.S. and state laws - it has not been final and we had to have three follow up home study visits, and then petition to adopt him in state court. That was filed last week and the agencies have worked in a timely manner to get the homestudies written, approved and a court report written and filed. We have hired an experienced adoption attorney who knows the courts, system and judges and guardian ad litems. Since I work with attorneys I thought I would save money and utilize one of my awesome attorneys but with the end of the year approaching we thought it best to go with someone who knows the ins and outs - and since we do not have time for mistakes. I do not mind mistakes, but we do not have time for them.

Anyway, we are overjoyed to announce that he is going to be OURS officially, legally and all the other 'ly's there are. He has definitely been OURS in our hearts and minds since 3/31/08 but it will feel good to get it all finalized. We have so much to be thankful this season - two beautiful children and so much more.



If anyone in the family or any of our dear friends are interested in being with us on our adoption finalization day - let us know. Details won't be posted here of course.

Blessings to all -- for we are truly blessed!

Vonda

3 comments:

Lisa & Dave said...

We also have our court date to finalize Aidan's re-adoption (ridiculous in my mind, people don't have to re-birth their bio kids if they have them out of the country!) next week. Like you, I'm glad to get it all over with.
Lisa

Becoming a family of 4 said...

Congrats. We finalized today. It was a fun experience and we got a video of it from the judge afterwards. Let us know how it goes.

Sarah Halter said...

Congratulations (though I can't believe it works that way)!!