Blog Entry
Our Official, Final Adoption is Done
Posted by Loren Alldrin on September 08, 2010 to Family Life blog
This last hoop changes the kids' legal names and makes them full-fledged members of our family.
(click any image to enlarge)
Yes Your Honor, We Understand
...that they're now legally and completely ours and we'll have to raise them and pay for them and all that stuff. Got it!
Signing Their Lives Over
Olivia and Naomi both got to sign the papers (Samuel's a bit too young). That's some pretty significant ink on the page.
With the Judge
There's not much to this final hoop--just a few rhetorical questions from the judge and some signatures on the page. We were in and out in about 15 minutes.
The Happy, Official Alldrin Family
It's official--we're a big, colorful family!
On Wednesday September 8th, our family went before the Shasta County court for our final, official adoption hurdle here in the states. This brief hearing gave the judge the opportunity to ask questions we've already been answering for nine months. Questions like, "do you believe it's in these kids' best interests to be in your family?" and "are you aware that these adopted children become fully and completely yours, just as if they had been born to you?" and "are you aware you'll have to cover all of their expenses?". That last one made us chuckle, especially considering all we've spent on medical bills in the last month or so. "Yes, your honor," I wanted to say, "we've got the financial outlay thing down cold."
We also got to sign a few papers that change the kids' legal names to Olivia Yodit, Naomi Bethlehem and Samuel Biruk. It was fun hearing the judge trying to pronounce Yodit and Biruk's given names. He clearly hasn't spent much time in Ethiopia.
The court does adoptions on Wednesday between 4pm and 5pm. We discovered after we made our appointment that there were no adoptions processed in August. In proper government backlog fashion, the area outside the courtroom was crammed with people. There's no set order in which they process the adoptions, so we had no idea how long we'd be waiting. They called us in first! Maybe they figured out that our family of nine plus about 40 dear friends were clogging the whole floor.
Today's hearing represents one of the last legal steps in our adoption. Looking back on the process, we thank God for the amazing journey we've been on for over two years. We also want to say thanks to all the dear friends and family who have supported us in so many ways. To those 40 who came to the court with us, here's a special thank you! Call us when your adoption is final, and we'll happily reciprocate...
By coincidence, I finally got our Ethiopia video prepped for the web. Head on over to the videos page to check it out.
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