When you adopt there are a few important milestones along the way. The day you get the referal is when you get a child "assigned" to you. You get medical information, family history, and normally a picture. While I can't speak for other adoptive families, for my wife and I, the referal day was -the- day when the child became ours. You have the option to turn down a referal but it was never something we considered.
The biggest day, of course, is "Gotcha" day, when your child comes home. I remember almost every detail about the arrival of my three kids. (Of course, the fact that we have about 500 pictures helps.)
One of the last events in the adoption process is the finalization. This is where a judge finalizes the adoption. A birth certificate with your childs new name is issued and for all intensive purposes, everything is complete. For our prior two adoptions, we were in Virginia, and the finalization happened in the background. We just got a letter in the mail when it was done. In Louisiana, you actually see the judge and are there when s/he signs the paperwork.
Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the court house for the finalization, and while the actual process took maybe 20 minutes (after waiting for the judge that is :), it was wonderful to actually be there and see it happen.
So anyway, I doubt anyone cares, but I thought I'd share. If you are interested in learning more about adoption, I'd recommend Adoption.com for more information. Also, almost any adoption agency in your area would be very open to talking to you more in depth about your options.
Archived Comments
Congrats Ray!
Congratulations!!!!!!! Its SO nice to see someone take advantage of this opportunity.
Congrats, Ray. So... do I get to chill with the family at MAX???
Contrats! Anytime you bring a child into a loving home either by birth or adoption is a great thing.
Now back to getting this crayon out of my PC fan...
Jim
oi mate. congratulations!!
Congratulations Ray. My sister has adopted two girls from China and our whole family saw the pictures they took of their final adoption ceremony.
Seeing those little girls waving tiny American flags the court gave them, well it was very special.
congrats my man.
see ya in a coupla days...
me and the wifee are hangin @ the hilton for the week... dressin up for halloween and shit, so ill look for ya... ill be gettin up with rob b. and jim @ his office, gettin nutty on all hallow's eve, and im sure @ the party... anyway, talk to ya soon!!!
and CONGRATS!!!
tw
Hi Ray,
I too have experienced the 3 joys (referral, gotcha and finalization) when we went through the process to adopt our son (who is just the best by the way!).
Congrats to you and your wife and look forward to next week!
Thom
nothing like being a proud Dad ehh
congratulations! adoption is a great thing... and not publicly appreciated nearly as much as it should be.
jedi;
I know exactly how you feel. My wife and I are adopting our first (from Guatemala) and just got our 171H (VISA & Citizenship granted) from the US government. I can't wait to pick up our baby - the referral should be here in a month or so..
jbacko