Like I said, we shared our court date with Nathan's sister, Sarah, and her family as they were adopting too. So, we all met at the court building a little while before we were scheduled for court. We had quite a croud there! There were 5 of us (W was at a visit with his mom), Sarah and Chris have 7, Nathan's other sister Christy and her family had 4, both of our parents made 4 more, then there were 5 DCS related people we had invited. So I guess that adds up to about 25 of us! It was great to have everyone there.
Sarah's family used the same lawyer as we did, so that was how we got to share the court date. She came out and went over a couple of things and made sure we didn't have any questions. Then we all filed into the court room. As we were walking in, I was hit with emotion. I was thinking great, I knew I was going to cry, but I don't want to start already! I kept myself together though and we sat down to wait on the judge. She had gotten on a call and was running a few minutes late.
Finally the judge made it and things began. Sarah's family went first with their adoption of Torry. Torry is almost the same age as Alexander. He is a super sweet little boy. He doesn't talk right now, but he was voicing his approval pretty much the whole time. It was pretty sweet. Chris and Sarah agreed that they wanted Torry to be a part of their family forever and the judge granted their adoption.
Then it was our turn.
We all stood up in the center of the room, which I was really glad the girls were able to come up too. The judge had us raise our right hand and be sworn in. I didn't see it at the time, but after I looked at the pictures, Addison was raising her right hand too. I guess she wanted to make it official too!
Our lawyer is the lady in the leather jacket there with us. She was the one doing most of the talking. I can't really remember most of what she said, because I was just trying to keep myself together. Which I didn't do a very good job of, I cried through the whole thing! But the gist of it was confirming we are Nathan and Shannon, agreeing we do want to make Alexander a part of our family forever, and that was about it I think.
It was an overwhelming thing. This has been a long year with Alexander. He has had some pretty rough days, especially in the beginning. But now, things are so much better. He is happy, he is growing, he plays so well with the other kids, he doesn't use 4 letter words, and so many other things that are just so great to see. As long of a year as it has been for him, I think it has been a bit longer for Nathan and I (especially me I think). I have taken him to visits that I didn't want to take him to. I have watched visits between Alexander and his mom that made me want to scream. I have been to meetings, case conferences, and court dates for this little boy. I'm pretty sure this process gave me my first gray hair (its in my eye brow!). But all that is over now. I don't ever have to say that he is my foster child ever again, he's my son. That's pretty cool, overwhelming, but cool.
So after the judge said her stuff (again, I have no idea what she said), we took lots of pictures. The judge was so nice. She stayed around to take pictures with us. She even let all the kids have a turn banging her gavel up on her podium.
When we were done, we all went to get some supper. Lots of our family and friends met us there. It was so nice to be with everyone. Alexander was having a great time. A couple of people brought him gifts and he thought that was awesome. 
So, it was a good day. It was emotional, but good.
