Last Day of the Academy

Rose & Lucy's last day at their completely rockin' school was yesterday. They went to "The Academy" for K-3 and K-4 and. WE. LOVED. IT. Now, given, we paid a small fortune to send them there, so we did expect some quality care and education, but still, that place was awesome. It definitely did not disappoint. Fantastic education, fabulous teachers, beautiful facilities (and only 3 blocks from our house) a chef who cooked organic food every. single. meal. (and snacks). Charlie still goes there, but the Twinkies have graduated...

Entrance to the school. There is a receptionist at the front desk, who mans the entrance. They have a security system, so she has to buzz you in. She is super friendly, and I swear she must study the parents' composite photos at night, because I have only dropped off or picked up 10-15 times over the past 2 years, and she still knows exactly who I am.

Anyways, Lucy always used to cheerfully say (in a very sing-song-y voice) "Have a good weekend" to her on the way out the door after school...every single day. Not just Friday. Finally she figured out that was only an appropriate thing to say on Fridays, and learned to say "Have a good night" on the other days.

The twinksters on their

way to school yesterday.

Friday is "Water Day" in

the summer -- hence the swimsuits...

Rose & Lucy walking into school

on their last day

Each classroom has an ocean theme.

Last year they were the Dolphins, this year the Stingrays

Lucy's space

Rose's...

Leaving on the last day...

Finalization: The Real Event

...as opposed to just the preview (see last post)...

So Charlie's finalization court date was today. I was actually half-way dreading it. Now, of course I love Charlie. I was and am excited for him to legally be a part of our family, which, technically, prior to today he was not. However, neither I nor any toddler in the entire world has any patience for waiting. We had been told that court involves a lot of waiting...hence the dread.

I have to say that the whole experience was quicker and better than I expected. We waited about an hour after we arrived for our case to be called. We were then before the judge for only 10-15 minutes, and after another 20-30 minutes or so of waiting for our official paperwork, we were done. Two books, about 5000 Cheerios, a sippy cup of water, and countless walks up and down the hall was all it took to keep Charlie entertained. Well, a few screams too (Charlie's, not ours).

Meet the United States' newest citizen, Charles Jin-yeong:

Me with Rose & Lucy as we were leaving

this morning to go to the courthouse

Me with the kids in the courthouse just

after we arrived (Ella is with my parents in

Illinois, so she missed finalization)

Sheref with the kids on our way into the courthouse

All of us after our appearance before the judge.

There were 3 families finalizing adoptions today.

One of the other dads offered to take our picture.

Sheref with the new American citizen as we were leaving

Me with Mr Chuckles afterwards

This picture cracks me up.

Let's just entitle this photograph

"America's Newest Citizen Needs a Nap"

Finalization -- A Preview

We go to court later this week to finalize Charlie Jin-yeong's adoption. This is his last week as a South Korean citizen, and his last week of not being an official legal member of our family.

We got him an outfit to wear for his finalization, and tonight was the trial run, a "fashion show" of sorts.

Not quite sure about this buttoned cuff thing...

Yeah, I'm rockin' it. I'm a natural.

This is what we call posing. He and Lucy -- they just can't NOT pose.

...aaaand...get that camera outta my face, lady!

"He's so cute!"

That's what Rose & Lucy frequently say about Charlie. And, you know what? I'd have to agree. This guy is cute!!

These pictures are all horrible quality, but I love them anyways.

[Notice the drool trail on the front of his shirt. This is thanks to his erupting molars.]

And this last picture? This is Charlie's cheeseball, posing for the camera look. He's recently caught on that when someone points this camera thing at him and looks through it, he is the center of attention.

Toasting the 4th...errrr, 3rd of July

The Wondertwins say "Happy 4th of July"

[Oh, and by the way, that's sparkling apple juice in the wine glasses...]

X Family vs. Hong Jin-yeong

So today all the parties met. Charlie, Sheref & I, Charlie's lawyer and our lawyer.

That doesn't sound so good, huh?

Actually, Charlie's lawyer is a Guardian ad litem. His job is to represent Charlie in our adoption proceedings. He has to certify before the judge that he feels it is in Charlie's best interest to be adopted by us, that we're not psycho crazy people, etc. The adoption agency and our social worker have already certified this, but apparently one more person has to do it as well to satisfy the South Carolina legal system.

[Did I mention this costs an extra $500?]

The Guardian ad litem was very nice, as is our lawyer. We met with them for an hour today, in a surprisingly child-proof room, to sign papers and discuss the finalization procedure, which is scheduled for mid-July. We fed Charlie approximately 5,000 Cheerios in an attempt to keep him quiet. I even let him poke my car keys in my ears because it was keeping him happy and quiet...

The bottom line of all this is that in 2 weeks,

Jin-yeong will officially be a U.S. citizen and will

legally be what he in fact already is, our baby boy.

Happy Matchiversary

Exactly one year ago today, we received a call from Holt, our adoption agency. They told us that we had officially been matched with this little guy.

This picture just makes me chuckle now, because the little guy in this picture really looks nothing like the Jin-yeong we met just over 4 months later. We thought he was so cute, though, and loved the impish little smile on his face. We also found his fruity outfit quite endearing!!

We first saw this picture on Tuesday evening, June 22nd. I was lying in our bed, working on my laptop. At that time, we were in the Waiting Child Program and were actively scouring the photolisting on nearly an hourly basis. Even though it was 5pm in Oregon, where the main Holt office is located, I just happened to check the photolisting. Given the hour, I didn't really expect any new photos, but checked anyways. And saw this face. I remember quickly reading the little summary of his social and medical situation. I called Sheref in to look, and we immediately decided to call and request his file. I emailed, then also called, Oregon. I've forgotten whether the following happened that night or early the next morning, but suffice it to say we got his file, reviewed it, and called to tell Holt we wanted to proceed nearly immediately.

As part of his file, we also received these two photos:

And these...

About a month earlier, we had "gone to committee" for another little baby, and (obviously) not been chosen. Generally, even if only one family is interested in a particular child, that family still has to "go to committee." Going to committee is a cumbersome process and somewhat stressful, so we were not looking forward to doing it again. We were also nervous because we had no idea how many other families would be interested in Jin-yeong.

On Wednesday night, I emailed one of the Holt staffers about setting up a committee phone interview. I was hesitant to ask, but did anyways, how many families were also going to committee with us. Within about 10 minutes, she wrote back something to the effect of "You'll be happy to hear you are the only family going to committee." I remember yelling to Sheref, who was in the kitchen cooking dinner, that we were the only family. Although we certainly didn't want to get our hopes up, we knew that this almost for sure meant we'd be matched with him, but we still thought we'd have to do an official committee interview and wait for a committee meeting. The committee meetings occur only on Thursdays, so we assumed we would have to wait another week to find out if we were officially Jin-yeong's family.

On Friday morning the 25th of June, one of the Holt staffers called Sheref's cell phone and asked a few simple questions. She then said, "Well, that's all I need to know for the interview. You are Jin-yeong's family!" I was at work, staffing Labor & Delivery. I was sitting at the nurses' station. I checked my email and found an email from Sheref with the title "We have a son."

And that is our matchiversary story. Happy Matchiversary!