Finalization Day

Shortly before noon yesterday, a very nice judge asked us some important questions and then signed the Final Judgment of Adoption for our babies.

What this means, if you're unfamiliar with the process, is that we have finally reached the end of the long road we set out on nearly 18 months ago. James and Kathryn, says the judge's order, are now our legal children, just as if they had been born to us. We will even receive new birth certificates reflecting this (though they will always know the story of their birth and adoption).

Although there was little doubt things would go as planned, and the last several months were mostly just waiting for the legal machinery to chew its way through the required notifications and filings and hearings, it is a relief to be finished with it all.