It's Official!

This beautiful, smiling bundle is officially a part of our family.

We flew in to SLC on November 24th and stayed the night with our friends, who have welcomed us into their home many times over the last couple of months. Tuesday morning we had an early appointment with Judge Kennedy. My heart has been skipping beats and doubling beats over the last few weeks as I thought about my baby girl. She's my baby and I just had this lingering struggle going on in my head that I wasn't deserving of her... that something terrible was going to happen and her adoption finalization wouldn't go through. Nothing ever happened to justify my feelings, but I just kept thinking "this is too good, I've been too blessed, something has to go wrong." I've been crying to Luke, to my sisters-in-law, to anyone who cared enough to listen. She's my baby and I'm a worrier. I've come to realize I must be a pessimist.... I don't like admitting it, and I don't like feeling like this, but I can't help it.

Masie's finalization could not have gone any smoother.

The judge was all business asking the adoption agency representative many questions and wanting to be certain that finalizing early was in the best interest of everyone. Our lawyer was great and let me say a few sobbing words of gratitude for adoption and the joining of Masie to our family. The whole thing only took half an hour, then we were at the receptionists office getting official copies of the adoption decree.

I was breathing again... she's ours, for real now!

Then we raced to the vital records office for Masie's birth certificate. We waited nearly 2 hours and were handed 3 copies. Then we raced to the post office to apply for her passport. We were on the road to my mom's house in Pocatello by noon!

On paper and by law, Masie is ours, and eternally she will be ours in just a few more weeks when we have her sealed to us in the Brisbane Temple at Christmas.

You'll be hearing gulping sighs of more relief from me after that.

Luke's sister has been in the States for a few weeks with her family, so we were able to meet up with them while we were in UT. Here's Annabelle with our Masie.