Our Adoption is Complete

"What?" you might say...I thought that you adopted Lil' Cowboy and Brown Sugar over a year ago? Well, we did as far as Liberia and the United States were concerned. But, in the U.S. this only gave them a permanant residence status.

We wanted our children to be U.S. citizens and to do this we had to fill out more paperwork and pay more money. The State of California wants their due! So, we jumped through all the legal hoops and our court day finally arrived.

We had no idea what to expect as we sat down in the front row of the courtroom. The Baliff smiled at us and told us to follow him into the judge's chambers. All of us were a bit taken back by this. The kids were in awe!

Let me tell you this was the most anti-climatic part of the whole adoption process. We signed on the "dotted" line and the judge signed his name. He asked if we wanted a picture with him and of course, we said yes. Then we were wisked off to the county clerk's desk to get all the paperwork officially stamped.

In six months we will get a United States birth certificate for both of our adopted children. This gives them all the priviledges of citizenship except the right to become President. They can get a U.S. passport also. This was important to us because if we ever leave the country we want all of our children to be able to get back into the country if something were to happen.

So, welcome to America Lil' Cowboy and Brown Sugar.