It's Final!!!

We feel so blessed to have finalized our sweet little Cora's adoption today! It is a pretty short and simple process in the actual court proceeding, with such huge and fabulous consequences! It's hard to not get super emotional as you are asked how you feel about your baby and the prospect of her becoming your legal child. Such strong emotions and love for Cora - and for her sweet birth parents that made this all possible! Then after he signed the adoption decree and made it final, the judge came down and we took pictures. 

This was our first adoption without my brother Jason representing us as our attorney. (We didn't use him because of the legal complications after Cora was first placed with us.) We missed him being there - but our attorney did a great job. He is also an adoptive father! 

Then we headed over to Brick Oven with both sets of our parents and my brother Joe, Rindi and Beckam for lunch. What could possibly be a better Christmas present than our sweet little angel? 

Afterwards we went by the mall so that Hema could see the "real" Santa. Hema made sure his beard was real and was relieved to get to talk to the real Santa before Christmas. I love this picture because it portrays each of their personalities so well. Vela - not too sure about sitting on his lap, Cora - all smiles and Hema - super excited! 

All in all a fabulous day...can't wait for next Wednesday when we have our sweet little babe sealed to our family for eternity! Feeling so very, very blessed today!