Charlotte’s Adoption Story Part 4: Adoption Finalization

Part 1 Before She Came Home

Part 2 First Month Home

Part 3 Road to Adoption

After a very long wait, the actual finalization hearing was less than 20 minutes long.  We were surrounded by our family and friends and it was an incredibly surreal moment in my life.  My wedding and Cooper’s birth have been the only equivalent events.  The finalization was a significant moment in helping me feel like she was mine, really mine.  Seeing my name listed as ‘Mother’ on her birth certificate also made it real to me.  It was a conscious choice to love Charlotte and be her mom every single day, even on the days I didn’t really feel like her mom.  It took us getting past age 3 for me to honestly feel equally bonded to both my children.  She has taught me more about myself than I ever knew possible.  Charlotte and I are cut from the same cloth.   She is absolutely the right daughter for me and for our family.  I am so thankful to my husband who knew it, but allowed me to learn it in my own time.

 

Thank you to my brother for filming that day in court.  Thank you to my sister for taking photos that day in court.  Thank you to Mikael and Che for taking photos and video and for giving us a second home in Colorado during all our travels back and forth between Colorado and California.  And for also having the most adorable daughter, who could so easily express exactly how I felt at the end the court hearing.