It's Official! GOTCHA DAY

With the craziness of the past week and a half, I never got around to sharing our BIG news, which I was reminded today about.  Though in our hearts, Karsten has always been our daughter, as of Wednesday, December 17th it became official. She legally shares our last name now!  Like it or not, she is our daughter for life!

Because Kate's adoption took place in NC, that is where we finalized her adoption. NC handles everything through the state, and you do not have to go to court.  However, here in SC, families must go to court to finalize adoptions. So on December 17th, our family of four loaded up into our car and headed to Family Court for the very first time to make everything official.

Kevin and I both had to testify, and I went first. I was a bit surprised, because I figured that Kevin would go first.  Nope.  They called my name.  I took the stand and answered what seemed like a TON of questions, though they were easy questions.  Why did we want to adopt? How long had we been married? What is my job? Who keeps our kids? Stuff like that.  Our lawyer said that he asks the wives to testify first because he's had too many husbands forget how long they'd been married! Ha!  After I finished up, Kevin took the stand.  They basically said "Do you agree with everything your wife has said?" and that was that.  I told him that he got off too easy.

Meanwhile, Kate was nonstop semi-fussing, because SHE wanted to take the stand. She kept saying "No, it's MY turn." and "I want a turn!".  So at the end, the judge called on her.  She didn't take the stand, but he asked her what her name was, how old she was, and if she was going to be a good big sister.  Once he finally addressed her, Kate shockingly turned shy! She didn't want to answer his questions.  He looked at her and said "Little girl. You've been making ALL that noise down there. I know you can answer my questions!"  Guess she realized his authority because she quickly answered his questions after that!

And then we took pictures.  We are so thankful that Karsten is OFFICIALLY ours. She is the answer to lots of prayers- mine and Kevin's prayer for another child to love, and Kate's SPECIFIC prayers for a sister.  We are so very thankful that she is a part of our family- forever.

Happy GOTCHA DAY sweet girl!