Our Day in Court

It only took us 14 months to get this done. I didn't have the same sense of urgency regarding paperwork AFTER the children were already ours. I finally felt so guilty about putting it off for eight months that I contacted the lawyer. It was a remarkably cold, blustery day back in February. I ran outside to get the van warmed up before loading everyone up. A few minutes later we trickled out to the van to find the doors locked. The keys in the ignition, the van running, and the second set of keys an hour away in Seth's pocket--no way I could make it to my appointment on time. I called for roadside assistance and waited. Then waited. Then started math with the bigs. Then called roadside assistance again. Then waited. Then ate lunch. Did reading, geography, and science. Then called roadside assistance again. Told them to stop lying to me about "being there in 20 minutes" because it had been four hours. Told them to just cancel the truck that was "just around the corner" because I if this was really an emergency we would have died by now. Thankyouverymuch. I called someone else and he was in my driveway within five minutes.

I finally made it to the office that day. Eight months and five hours late. I didn't feel too guilty after that, because I had taken the step by dropping off paperwork and signing a (rather hefty, in my opinion) check. I didn't hear from the lawyer again until a few weeks ago. (I have to admit that I had my reservations about the personable lawyer I had hired. Sure that she was running off with our wimpy payment.) We finally got a notice about appearing in court. I've only been in a courtroom once before. It was in Ukraine and the judge was scary--yelling at me, peppering us with questions about getting paid to adopt our daughter. This was a completely different experience. The judge was jolly and passed out gifts (gavels) to our children afterwards. I have to admit that I felt a little nostalgic about the morning. It was the last little piece that had to be done to make our children "ours".