Waiting patiently for Mommy and Daddy to pack up the car (and trying to control my hair a bit--Mommy combed a little water into my hair and stuck this hat on me!)
Snow and ice covered roads along with blowing snow most of the way to Ironwood!
Evelyn and our social worker, Kerry, hanging out just before our hearing.
Our family posing for a quick photo with Judge Massie. The judge even acknowledged Evelyn's stuffed monkey's presence during the proceedings! We're wondering if it'll be in the transcripts!
Our Forever Family!
Evelyn hamming it up at the hotel!
Getting ready to go swimming for the first time ever!
This isn't so bad! Look, I can float on my tummy!
Beautiful blue skies and clear roads for the trip back home!
A quick visit with Great-Grandma Ann Rice--wonder what she has in her pocketbook?
Today was Gotcha Day - and it could not have gone better. Well, the road to the courthouse could have been better...but let's start at the beginning. A very good place to start...
We left Gwinn this morning at 9:45 (a little later than planned) and Daddy was worried about getting there on time as we were looking at blizzard quality winds to deal with most of the way. Some roads were snow covered, some slick with ice, and some spots were white-outs, but nothing was going to stop us from making our family complete. We ended up getting to Bessemer with over an hour to spare - so we had a quick lunch and headed to the courthouse.
After a phone call in the morning, we were not sure if our social worker, Kerry, was going to be able to make it or not. We were happy to see her waiting in the parking lot when we pulled in. After a short wait in the hallways, we were called in for the hearing.
At this point, we should say that our original plan was to have family members join us in June for this event. When it was moved to March, we thought it might be best for it to just be the three of us. Afterwards, we were very happy that no one made a long trip for this hearing as it lasted about five minutes. At lunch, I had meant to ask Lara if she would prefer a lengthy process with lots of fanfare, or something quick so we could be an official family sooner. All in all, we were happy just to have everything official.
We then checked into our hotel - the same AmericInn we stayed at the night before Evelyn was born. When I made the reservation, the options were a basic room or a King Suite with a fireplace and a jacuzzi for a whole $4 more. We took door #2. However, when we entered the room, we realized that although the room was nonsmoking, it had only turned into a nonsmoking room 3 weeks ago. We knew we could not spend the night in an old ashtray, so we moved to a different room. Still nice, still has a jacuzzi (unused by us), but no fireplace - no suite. The hotel was nice enough to give us a discount on the room.
Next, we were off to Grandview Hospital, where Evelyn was born. We had called ahead and knew that Nurse Lisa was on duty. Lisa had taken excellent care of the three of us back in July, and we owe her a lot for keeping us calm and sane during our first hours as parents.
After dinner and a little shopping (WE FORGOT TO PACK PACIFIERS!!! HOW DID WE FORGET TO PACK PACIFIERS? FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S HOLY...HOW????) we headed back to the hotel for Evelyn's first ever swim. She loved the water. After a very short time, she got the hang of floating. Not by herself, but we only needed to hold her by the shoulders and she let the rest of her body float.
So, busy day. A great day. Ranks WAY up there on the great day scale. All in all, pretty hard to beat a day like today.
3 comments:
I am so happy for the 3 of you!
Our thoughts were with you all day, even though we couldn't be there in person. You're right it ranks right up there with the best days ever. We love you all.
At 2pm Ann and I sat eating lunch and thought of the three of you. Held you close in our hearts.
Gotcha day if over, now it's keepher time!
Love,
Grandma "P"
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