Finally!!!

We are finally an eternal family! I know I'm very late in posting this, but the day after we finalized Miles' adoption and were sealed together as a family, we left town and spent Dave's spring break in Kansas. As far as my family is concerned, my mom was the only one who had met Miles so I sort of forced the issue and decided we would spend Dave's week off in Kansas so more family and friends could meet him. We had a great time, but I'll talk about that in a different post.

So, in the morning on Thursday, April 1st we finalized Miles' adoption. When we showed up 15 minutes early as instructed by our attorney, we started to wonder if something wasn't up because our attorney was not there. Our caseworker showed up not too much after us, which was a relief. Time kept passing and no attorney was there. Our attorney finally showed up and before he even had a chance to catch his breath our caseworker sprung it on him that their license had expired the day before, but that they had applied and been approved for a new license, but had not yet received that information from the state. He sort of made it sound like that was going to be a big deal and that she should get on the phone and see if the State of Utah couldn't send something to the Judge to show that all of that had been done. We also realized that the Judge didn't have the reports from our first and second home visits, which we all thought she had received months ago. Our caseworker hadn't brought her computer with her and was trying to get a hold of her husband who was at their house to have him get in our file and fax that to the court. We all sort of were in panic mode at that point and I honestly didn't think we were going to be able to finalize that morning. Our hearing was scheduled for 10:00 a.m. and it was already like 10:30 and the Judge had a full schedule. Somehow all of that worked out and we were able to proceed with our hearing.

Waiting...

Our supporters waiting...

We had a lady Judge who was GREAT! She thought Miles was adorable and thought based on what she had read in our file and what she had seen that we had done a good job of loving Miles and taking great care of him. The hearing was a very emotional experience for us. Dave and I both got teary eyed when the Judge was talking about whether or not Miles' birth mom knew that she had terminated her rights, etc. I can't even begin to imagine how hard that was for his birth mom and I got emotional just thinking about all of that. We also then got to be in the spotlight for a few minutes and answer a few basic questions and also that horrible awful open-ended question I mentioned in a previous post. I was emotional, but made it through. Dave on the other hand, could barely talk and had a hard time expressing his feelings. He is SUCH a GREAT dad! Miles and I are both very lucky to have him in our lives.

After the hearing we took pictures with the Judge and our caseworker and then headed to get our copy of the Decree of Adoption which made it all final. YAY!!!!

Our Judge, Judge Claudia Laycock

Our caseworker, Lisa Ecker

We then had a small luncheon at our house while we tried to get Miles to take a nap since he had essentially missed his morning nap and wasn't going to get an afternoon nap either since our sealing was scheduled for that afternoon. He, of course, didn't sleep. There was too much going on in the house!

After that we headed to the Provo LDS Temple to be sealed together as a family. What an amazing experience! We got to meet with our Sealer (Garth Morgan) before the actual ceremony which turned out to be a huge blessing. He basically went over what he was going to say to us and our friends and family which was nice because Miles was pretty grumpy during the ceremony and it was hard to focus on what was going on. During the actual sealing, Miles got quiet and was calm. It is amazing what the Spirit can do to us, even babies! Afterward we went outside and took pictures together as an eternal family!!!

It's done! Yay!

Our eternal family

Friends and family

Our fantastic neighbors, Wes & Michelle

Dave's mom

My mom

My friend, Shandra