Ours, Ours, All Ours!

The Sleepy Baby is, as of about 10:45 a.m. this morning, officially and irrevocably ours.

The final hearing was, all things being equal, a bit of a non-event. First, we were able to attend telephonically owing to the fact that these hearings are notoriously* short and it would be silly to make us fly to Florida to participate. (I believe that "it would be silly" was actually included in the petition filed with the court as those are very technical legal terms.)

So, we made our way to the adoption agency we had planned to use for the whole shebang that we actually ended up using only for our homestudy and post placement reports but the social worker is a notary and was happy to sit on the speaker phone while we attended. When we got there, we got out our trusty phone card and dialed. And went to the Judge's voicemail. Um. Ok. We were a little early, so we tried again in a few minutes. Same thing. Panic began to build as I thought maybe I'd gotten the date wrong and we had missed it, so we called the attorney's office and, surprise!, the attorney wasn't available - because she was in court to finalize an adoption. Yeah, that would be our adoption. So we asked for them to let her know that we were trying to call but getting voicemail.

We tried back a little later and got through. Then the Judge asked the notary to swear us in. And there were crickets heard throughout the land. Now, I'm guessing she doesn't watch Law & Order or read books, because isn't the standard swearing in "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God"? But she starts out with this, "Um, are you here today..." and the Judge interrupts and asks if she'd like him to tell her what to say. Which he does, and she does, and we do. So help us God.

Then the attorney asks us a few questions like our full legal names, and whether we want to adopt this child (Side note: what is it about occasions like this that bring out the snark in people like me? Cause all through our wedding rehearsal, Tim and I would roll our eyes and make snappy comments when practicing the "Do you, Tim" and "Do you, Beth" bits. And it was super tempting on the actual day to kid around. Same deal happened here, though I managed to settle with an eye roll before answering, "Absolutely.") and a few other very easy questions like that. Then it was done. And the Judge said congratulations and that he's a cutie (which he is) and we were finished. Time spent on the phone: maybe 5 minutes.

Best 5 minutes I've ever spent.

*Not notorious at the Bonnie and Clyde level, obviously. But I just like the word. Because then I can sing the song for the rest of the evening.