Yesterday, on National Adoption Day, we adopted our beautiful two year old baby girl. We have been her foster parents since she was two months old. Up until Friday evening we were not completely sure that all the paperwork would come together for us to be able to adopt on National Adoption Day. I will share in another post about the issues, problems and concerns that we struggled with.

There were over eighty families adopting from the foster care system at the courthouse so it was a very busy place. Each family had a volunteer to guide them through the process which was very nice. We placed our name tags on and started our adventure. The courtroom was decorated for the occasion and they had all kinds of food. There was a coloring area for the children and this allowed us time to talk with caseworkers and attorneys.

There were children of all ages and ethnicities’ waiting to become permanent members of their families. While waiting, our talk turned to all the foster children waiting in foster care hoping to find their forever families and how blessed these children were to be out of the system. The siblings of the adopted children were also included in the day with the chance to choose a gift at the treasure box and even received gifts during the adoption ceremony. I loved this and thought it really was amazing that they were included.

Our attorney had always been part of setting up the event of families adopting on National Adoption Day for a few years, we were her first case to oversee for the event. She was nervous especially since she was unable to find us in the courthouse. Our kids were getting tired since we were up at 3:00 A.M. for the long drive and I was concerned that we might be dealing with behaviors from our two young daughters during our court time.

The next post I will share our court room experience.

More reading:

National Adoption Month Celebrating With a Giveaway

November is an Important Month for Foster Care

Thoughts Before Adoption

Celebrating National Adoption Day by Adopting

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