Rachel's Adoption Day

I got a call yesterday asking how many of our kids we would be bringing today. This judge helped us with Annalyn's, Sveta's, and Anna's adoptions and really wanted to meet all of the family this time around. She wanted to make this day special for us since the majority of her cases aren't much to celebrate. She said this day was special for her to be able to witness an adoption of an older child into a wonderful family. That just doesn't happen very often anymore.

Here we are walking to the courtroom.

The judge had balloons, cookies, snacks, and toys for all of the kids. It was definitely a celebration.

Here we are right after the court session ended and Rachel is legally ours.

Each kid got to pick out a prize from a wagon they wheeled in. It was nice to see that Andrew who has been kind of rough playing lately picked out a soft, white teddy bear that he cuddled all the way back to school.


Some of the kids including Rachel, let their balloon go to signify Rachel letting go of her previous name and family to officially become a member of our family.
Here is Julia, Rachel, and Jonny acting all goofy and sentimental. They asked me to take this picture. I am partial to the sweet smiling faces that I have the privilege of smiling back at.