Our day in Court

Monday we finally made it through court to get Spiderman's adoption recognized in the US. This is just the first step in the process of obtaining his American citizenship. The process went smoothly despite doing it without an attorney and here we are with the Judge. For those of you who know my work history, the last time I worked with this judge was the day before Jaybird was born, 8 years ago. I've been home ever since.


The court docket was behind and we had to wait over an hour til our turn. The kids were very patient and read books in the hallway. As you can see, Hope was there to take the same step in her citizenship process. We had invited the other local families who are adopting and had a wonderful gift while waiting for court. Patty received her travel call from AGCI with a departure date of June 8th!! Lisa then said she received the same call earlier that morning!! There was some screaming, hugging and crying as we were all able to celbrate together. What a gift that the next 5 waiting kids will be home so much sooner than we imagined. An even bigger gift is for the two families to be able to travel TOGETHER as the McCarty's have never even been on an airplane before. Icing on the cake is that tomorrow, the Smith's leave to pick up their daughter as well. Within the next 2-3 weeks, all 6 Ethiopian blessings will be joining our church family.

After court we came home and celebrated with ice cream and slip n' slide. Hope wasn't so sure she wanted to try something that the boys made look so dangerous but in the end, had just as much fun as the others.

This is a double slide intended for racing but not for colliding. Intended....

On another note, Spiderman has continued to grow. He is now a whopping 48 pounds (which means he has gained about 8 pounds since coming home). It's finally kicking in, although you wouldn't notice to look at him. He's trying to eat more protein so he'll grow the last 1/2 inch needed to get on the water slide at the city pool next week. I'm praying they'll let him slide anyway. :)

I had to throw this one in here. As we promised, Spiderman got his chance to really fly a kite. We went out to the local lake the next day where there is ALWAYS wind. Look at that precious smile! He enjoyed seeing the superhero kite take flight and wants to do it again soon.