A Trip Down Adoption Lane - The End of a Long Journey

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! We sure did! Well back to our story. On May 9th we had to be at the courthouse for a conference call for the finalization around 1:15 for the call to begin at 1:30. My niece Lane was there to capture the event on video. Bryant (Chris' brother) came by to witness the event and my aunt Kay who works at the Probate Judge's office was our go through person because she is a notary. We were nervous because a new judge had taken over the adoption cases in that district. Jerry the director of C.F.S. didn't know much about him but at least he pardoned us from having to come back down there for court since it was only going to take about 15 minutes. Finally the call came from our Lawyer who was in Orlando. He was trying to get the judge on the phone. As soon as everyone was on the phone, the judge asked Kay to swear us in. So we had to raise our right hand and etc. Pretty weird feeling because you were not actually in a court room. The judge asked Chris some questions first and then he asked me some questions. Then he declared us the legal parents of Lillian. He then congratulated us on our adoption of Lillian. The lawyer then told the judge that we were big Alabama fans and then the judge jokingly said that he should of asked before hand if we were Florida fans. That was it! Lillian was officially ours!!! We would receive her birth certificate in the mail about a week to two weeks from then. We took some pictures of the occasion and we shared some tears of joy. Our dream finally came true of having a family and we owe it all to God. He had his hand in all of it! We did all that we could and left the rest up to him. That night which was a Wednesday night we had a party after church for family and close friends that helped along the way.