Happy Re-Adoption Day!

This pretty much sums up the day

Me and my Dada

With Baba and Dada

Gettin' my shrimp fix

All this Court stuff makes me tired

Today was Charlie's re-adoption day. We started out the day with Chad driving through the night from a youth trip in Tennessee to come back for Court. Poor guy got in at 4:00am, slept till 10:00am, went to Court and got back on the road to drive 4 hours back. Yuck. Sorry Chad. When they asked me if any dates weren't good I was thinking more like "Is Monday better than Wednesday?" kinda thing. Not, are you going to be out of town at some point? Ooops.
Well we got to the courthouse at 11:30 for our 12:00 hearing. You may remember in a moment of bravery insanity, I decided to represent us in Court without an attorney. We waited in the lobby until 11:55 and then the Bailiff appeared with the Judge's assistant. She called me over, with a huge file in her hands. And said...."Uh, the Judge has been reviewing your file...." At that point I was honestly waiting for her to say...."And it's all wrong". But instead she told us the Judge had reviewed our file, already signed an Order and we didn't even need to appear before him. Well, that was anti-climatic. I am soooo glad I stayed up half the night drafting my own Order, ironing 3 pairs of dress pants, and 3 dress shirts (including two miniature sets of clothes, that let me tell you is a real domestic challenge.) I think I had totally psyched out to be the attorney, you are the attorney....It was kinda showing up with your game face on for the big game and the other team forfeits.
On the other hand, it was wonderful to get in, get out. Mission accomplished. No nerves, no judge, no hoopla.
And it wasn't a total bust. Charlie got to see prisoners being escorted in shackles to jail. He talked about it ALL.DAY.LONG. We talked about why you shouldn't steal/hurt people and always listen to your Mama. Perfect.
The other bit of good news is that we were under the impression that all of Charlie's Russian documents would be sealed, as in, without a Court Order we would never even see his Russian birth certificate again. And you all know how sensitive about my boys documents. As if a little part of his heritage would be sealed away with it.
BUT they never asked for it and I never volunteered it. The clocked and stamped and signed and we walked ran out the door. Documents intact. Woooo-Hooo.....
And Charlie got a shrimp lunch and toy out of the deal since we told him if he spoke to the Judge and was polite in Court. He got out easy....and so did I.
Now both my boys will have birth certificates from the good ol' USA and both from the same State to boot.
So now we have another huge notch in our adoption belt. Two more baby steps to go. Home studies in February 2013 and February 2014. And then we are DONE baby!!!