Court Appearance Part 2

Yesterday we went to court!! My parents came with us which was wonderful! We got there 30 minutes early and the judge and his staff were working on his computer on the stand. He said they were having technical difficulties but it wouldn't take very long and that he would get to our case early. Other people started coming into the courtroom and sitting down on the benches near us. It was really cool, a few minutes later the bailiff came into the courtroom and told the other people that everyone that wasn't part of the adoption party had to leave because the courtroom was closed for this case. It was really neat to have the entire place to ourselves.

Finally the judge came back in and we all stood. He told Tony, Andy and I to come up to the table and have a seat. He then called me up to the stand and started asking questions of which he already knew all the answers. Things like my age, marriage date, Andy's DOB, when placement happened and if we thought this adoption was in the best interest of our family. He then asked the same questions of Tony. Both of us I think were a little nervous because we each answered one of the date questions incorrectly. The judge was really nice about it and asked if we were nervous. Even though we were there for a really happy reason I believe just being in a courtroom can make you anxious. He then granted the petition for finalization of the adoption. Then he came down off the stand congratulated us and his staff took pictures of us with him.

For all the adoptive parents who have yet to re-adopt in their state it really is fairly simple. In our state you do not need an attorney. A friend gave me the forms and I customized them for our case. I then took them, along with the required documents to the courthouse and submitted them. Within a couple of weeks the judge sent us a letter stating that he needed a few more items. We took those in immediately and two weeks later we got a letter with our court date on it.

I have to say I'm really happy we did this. Even though I don't see us moving out of the state you never know what the future will bring. We now have an domestic adoption decree, an official name change and will have an american birth certificate. We won't have to have our documents translated anymore because they were all in Mandarin. The original documents that we got from Taiwan are now keepsakes that we will always have for our son but are no longer the only official documents we have. It just gives us peace of mind.

I will add photos when we get them uploaded...

Court Appearance

I am so excited to announce that we have received our re-adoption court date for Andy which is next Thursday!!! I don't know how many families actually go through the process of re-adopting their child again here in the states. It's not necessary in our state but we decided to do it anyway. I know there are some states that don't acknowledge internationally finalized adoptions as final, when it comes to legal heirs, so that's why we took this step. Just in case we ever move to a state where this is an issue. Anyway, just wanted to share this little tidbit because we are very excited to take this next step.