Making it Official

"Children are a heritage from the LORD,
offspring a reward from Him."
Psalm 127:3

December 21 was an amazing day for not just us, but our families too. In all domestic adoption cases, you have to go before a judge before you can have all of the legal rights as a parent. Most of the time, the child has to be in your home for 6 months or more before you can do this. However, most people that know us know that we don't ever do anything the way your supposed to do it! See, Kiir turns 18 on January 1st and we had to consummate the adoption before his 18th birthday. So after only a little over 2 months, we were standing before the judge. It was so wonderful to have so many family members with us: Kelly's parents & sister, my parents & grandparents; along with our case manager and CPS workers that have been with us along this journey. The judge was so great. He even let us take pictures with him! Here are a few more:

And of course, we had to take some goofy ones too!

It was a fun and happy day...especially after the court hearing. We got to goof off in the lobby (as you can see), sign the official decree stating that we are now Kiir's legal parents, and then go out to eat at Esperanza's for breakfast! YUM! After that, we spent the day celebrating the Carson family way: we went to the theater to watch a 3D movie. :) After that, we went to half price to look around and then came back home again and hung out. It was such a wonderful day that Kiir decided to start calling it "Happy Kiir Day"! Happy Kiir Day is now going to be an annual event and is already on the calendar for December 21, 2011. Here is a last picture (and our favorite) to commemorate the day: