Oh, Happy Day!

June 30th...the day we officially became a family of 6!!!

We would like to introduce:

Annabelle (formerly known as Big Sis)

and

Sadie (formerly known as Little Sis)

These girls are plopped right between both of the boys in ages and at least for another month we have a 7, 5, 3, and 1 year olds in the house.

Everything proceeded smoothly, outside of some last minute freaking out by Luke.  We were also pleased that we got it finalized when we did as our license will be expiring later this month.  At this point in time, we are done with fostering, but we will also never say never :)

It has been a long road getting to this point and there were several reminders of our journey up to this point that day...

*On the drive between court and our celebratory meal afterwards, Scott and I's wedding song came on the radio.  I rarely hear the song played so it seemed extra special to hear it on this particular day.

*Our lawyer was the same lady we had used for Luke's adoption and our failed adoptions, plus the adoption took place at the same courthouse as Luke's so there were lots of memories popping up throughout the proceedings.

*We also had to drive past the place where we met Baby E's mama to go to the hospital with her on the day he was delivered and could have driven past the place where we had to eventually return him back to his mama (we missed this one due to a shortcut).  The significance of these two events were also strong on my mind this day.

*Don's birth came to mind, as well.  It was not lost on me how relatively simple adding him to our family was (minus the years of childlessness, events listed above, pregnancy, and labor and delivery).  We simply had a baby, signed a birth certificate, and were free to bring him home.  There was no negotiating with several other people about their needs/rights to the baby, no lawyers involved, no courtroom appearances, no neglect/health concerns, no waiting on someone else to make crucial decisions about this little person in your care, no paperwork hassle, no waiting on legal work proving that we are indeed this child's parents, no need to wait on papers proving what my child's name is...no one questioning me in a courtroom about whether or not I will love this child (at least the doctors and nurses never asked)...you get the point.

It was a good, happy day and it felt long overdue!

P.S.  The official count was 1,099 days in foster care...3 years and 1 day in our care.