meet lucy howell

It's finally official. Our adoption of Lucy is final. Done. She's ours forever and ever.
We are so blessed.

You might be thinking... "I thought it was already a done deal, so what is she talking about?"

Adoption is a tricky thing. There are lots of steps to it that most people, unless you are adopting or are very close to someone who is/has, have no idea about. We had to go to our final court hearing to hear a judge pronounce us official. I got to thinking about adoption and it sort of reminded me of a relationship between a man and woman. Random, I know... hang with me. We knew we wanted a baby through adoption so we worked with an agency and met birthmoms (first dates with them). Then we chose a birthmom and she chose us (going out, going steady, in a dating relationship with strong intentions of forever).  During that time we are falling deeply and madly in love with Lucy Jane in the womb. Then Lucy was born and we got to take her home at 2 days old (now we were engaged). We couldn't have loved Lucy any more than we did at this time. She was "ours" and it definitely felt that way. I felt that way being engaged to Cameron- "he's mine." It didn't take the wedding for it to feel real and official. Then we finalized our adoption in court (THE WEDDING DAY). Now we are together forever and her name becomes ours.   Now you get it, right? Not so random anymore.

We had our parents at the courthouse with us, which really meant a lot to us for them to be there. After court we had a lunch at our house and the rest of the family came and ate and loved on our little girl.

Don't you worry- big girl got lots of attention too. I believe I remember uncles and friends of ours spinning her endlessly in the backyard and playing with her. I also remember her getting a little toy from us too. It was like what one might do when bringing home a new baby from the hospital. It's actually been amazing to have Lucy's court date right now. It's given us a very natural outlet for talking with Emily about the process. She's already planning her party for after court. I heard all about the decorations today. :) She can't wait to be a Howell is what she has been telling us. We can't either.

So, Lucy is officially ours. We will get her new birth certificate with our names listed as her parents. We can change her name legally to ours. She is staying forever. Our hearts are so full. Thank you, God, for our little Lu.