It's Officially Official

Yup!  He's ours, now and forever. 

It was a really wonderful day.  Our hearing wasn't until 1:30 pm so we had plenty of time to get our day going, get the kids fed a couple times, get all dressed up, and even take some pictures before we left the house.

My kids are so funny....

Anyway, we headed downtown to the courthouse and didn't have any trouble with traffic this time.  The first go round was terrible!  We went up to the 2nd floor and waited for our attorney, Sid, outside Judge Welch's courtroom.  One case was seen ahead of us and then we were up!  The judge welcomed us and asked us to raise our right hand.  He then asked us if we would tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  I snapped out of my Law and Order moment and said yes.  Then Sid asked us a series of questions basically telling us once this is final, it's final and we're expected to treat Griffin like he's our "own biological child".  Yup, he is definitely "my own".  Forever and always.

After Sid said everything he needed to say the judge told us that Sid worked very hard for us and all our paperwork looked perfect.  Judge Welch then signed the adoption decree and it was a done deal.  Such a wonderful feeling!  We took a picture with the judge, he told us numerous time that our children are so beautiful :) and congratulated us again, and sent us on our way.  It was a really nice, quick experience.

We headed outside and took a quick picture with Sid and discussed birth certificates and adoption decrees.  Then we were all done and we exited the Oklahoma county courthouse an official family of four.  The significance of finalization didn't really hit me until we left the courthouse.  But I found myself looking back on our adoption process and realizing....we had done it!  We survived!  We made it from application to finalization.  And now he's REALLY ours.  In our head and heart he's always been ours but now it's for real.  Feels good!

And my favorite pic of the day....

It's like she's saying, "He's ours!  He's finally ours!!!"

Yes, he is.