Everyone wished me luck, and such, but really we were in court for all of 10 minutes. My entourage and I arrived at the court. As we were all kind of taking out time getting into the court house...i was worried that there were clients looking at me. I tried to herd everyone upstairs quickly. I wasn't nervous, but of course had some butterflies. It was so great to have so many people there to support me. When the bailiff called us in, he told us to sit where ever we wanted. Usually i walk into this courtroom, it is quiet, you have a certain place to sit, and there are lawyers, and everyone else there. There was a little chaos trying to decide where everyone should sit...i ended up in the middle of the table, with my father next to me holding the baby. Calvin was off to the side recording the whole thing. The judge walked in, and actually came over to the table, right in front of me. They look soooo much bigger on the bench, and she is small anyway, but apparently she had 4 inch heels on. So she came over to the table, and looked at the baby, and said hi to him, and called him the other name...LOL...now i get it, but she had the paperwork right there in front of her with the name that i was changing it too. At this point i am not sure if she remembered i was a social worker, but i said something about not knowing about this part of the process. She said that it was clear I didn't because I hadn't checked the box on the paperwork that said I wanted to adopt. I can't wait to see the video to see the look on my face, but i know my heart stopped!! I know i started crying at some point, but i don't remember when. Well, part of the problem is I didn't fill out the paperwork, my social worker did. So the judge said that she wasn't going to hold up the proceedings for it, just then my social worker popped up, that she had seen the mistake, and had filled them out again, ad had a copy with her. OMG...we talked about it afterward, and she said she probably should have warned me...LOL...Anyway, the judge said that adopting him meant that I had to give him everything he wanted...She actually said this process is kind of like getting married, she asked me questions, I said I do...and she signed the paperwork. That took all of 10 minutes. We took a few pics with my parents, grandmother and the judge and that was it. We all huddled outside as I waited for the paperwork and took more pictures. It was so great to have so many people there to support me. The poor social worker who was stuck with seeing me every week came, as well as the social worker who made that call 9 1/2 months ago, and also approved my home study. That was awesome, because i wouldn't be here with out them.
And the posts started on facebook..everyone wanted to see pics...I was going to wait, but my mom and Darby said they were going to blow up their pages with pics, so i figured I had to get to it first.
So, I guess this is the end of my first chapter of the Mommy Diaries. I really have enjoyed documenting this process, some of the early stuff i don' remember, and only know because of what I wrote here. I am going to stay certified and keep my home study up to date. Who knows what the egg donor will do, or i forget what it is like to have an infant at home. So stay tuned for my crazy life, because i know as he gets older, i am going to have so many more things to blog about, including the time when he starts asking about bio parents and how we became a family. Right now i am going to enjoy him, because this age is soooo cute. I will try not to post too many pictures and videos of him...but now that i can, i can't make any promises. With that, here is one of the first pictures i have of him at 3 days old, at the hospital...I look scared to death!
