We had our finalization hearing on Nov. 20th. It only took about 15 minutes, but was amazing and perfect. Our daughter, now 5 and a half months old, slept through it, of course, since it was during nap time. First they basically introduced the case for the record and asked to see the baby (she was sleeping in her stroller). Our lawyer joked that they'd have to come to see her because we weren't going to wake a sleeping baby, but I picked her up and held her.
They called my husband to the stand to testify first and had him spell his name for the record. They reminded us that she would not qualify for a stipend, since she was "practically perfect in every way" & asked him if we'd be financially able to handle the burden of raising this child. They asked what sort of work my husband does, what type of dogs and cat we have, and how he would describe the baby. His description was pretty much how every new dad would describe their 5 month old daughter, except in our case she really IS the most adorable, most clever, and most fun baby in the world!
I was called next, passing the baby to my husband on his way back. Aside from spelling my name, was spared a lot of the questions because the judge asked if I would have answered the same as my husband. I was then asked to describe the baby, which I think is more for the parents than the courts. It's really a chance to gush on about how much you love your baby in front of a court recorder, which is a chance I welcome, personally! :) Let it be on the record that my baby is fantastic! I told them we are honored and lucky to be her parents.
The judge ordered that we are officially her legal parents and said he would issue the decree! Before we left, the official adoptive parents/kid/judge photos were taken and our family could come up and take some camera phone photos at the same time. Actual cameras were not allowed through security! (IKR?!) Our little one started waking up as picture time began so we have some photos of a very confused looking baby!
The court workers, including the judge told us how adorable she is and congratulated us ... and poof! we were parents! We were given a few copies of the decree a few minutes after leaving the courtroom.
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