Harvell 5

Yesterday, February 22 we became an official family of 5. Baby Boy's adoption took twice as long as Goober and Ribbits and was four times as heart wrenching and uncertain. We had about 4 possible court dates that were all cancelled or moved for one reason or the other. So, imagine just how MAD we were yesterday morning, after driving for 2 hours, when we got a phone call from Baby boy's attorney saying that the judge would not be in that day. We were only 5 minutes from the court house and Adam and I were fuming the whole way there. It was a combination of sooo many things that upset us.....a)we were arranging this date around 5 parties that had to be present and none of them seemed to be able to line up with dates that worked for our schedule, b)our own arrow worker bailed out a week ago but the court agreed to let another lady represent us to the judge on her behalf, c)I only have so many maternity days to use and subs for art class are limited...there was no way I was going to get another "paid" day off and line up another sub and write out another days worth of  sub plans, d) THE MOST IMPORTANT..we wanted Baby Boy to be a Harvell on his 1st birthday, which is tomorrow....and we were already pushing it :)

We went into the courthouse and found our attorney who seemed to think that another judge would see us that day. He went off to do some convincing and we found everyone else who was supposed to go in with us . When the security guard announced that all 9:30 adoptions should enter the courtroom we scooped up all our kiddos and walked in. Our attorney was up front and looked surprised. He said "did they tell you to come in?" We said "no, but we aren't leaving here without an adoption". So sure enough the judge there officiated ours and another adoption back to back.

Our adoption was second, thank the Lord. I was so embarrassed and sweaty by the end of ours and thankful that all the people from the first adoption didn't have to sit through our drama. First, Ribbit was in a mood that she gets in about once every couple of months...the kinda mood where she needs 55 love taps to get control over herself. Baby Boy hadn't had a nap, was off his schedule and acted as if someone had slipped him a Monster energy drink. They both wanted mommy, they both screamed and kicked for mommy. They both were begging for something to drink. Baby Boy's lawyer gave Ribbit a styrofoam cup full of water against our wishes. The minute Baby Boy saw that he begin reaching and grabbing for it, which made Ribbit scream and move it quickly which meant everyone was getting drenched. Adam and I were holding them, trying to answer the judges questions, answer the other witnesses' questions and keep from laughing. Somehow Baby Boy ended up grabbing the styrofoam cup, breaking it in his grip, while Ribbit tried to fling it away from him. That resulted in a rain shower that coated all 5 of us. The judge never broke a smile but kept asking us if we heard him. We felt like we couldn't walk away to calm them down or dry ourselves off so we just stood there soaking wet, sweating from the nerves and pressure and holding our screaming children whispering to Ribbit that she had a spanking coming and trying to distract Baby Boy.

The judge finally granted the adoption and the name change and we asked if we could take 2 quick pictures and get OUT OF THERE!!!  In our pictures you can tell that Adam is wet but the rest of our clothes don't show it. I had to completely change Baby Boy due to how soaking wet he was and you can see how upset Ribbit is in the picture. All the people with us kept asking us if we wanted more pics and we were like " nope, we are getting these children out of here!!!". We ferociously signed all of our paperwork, told everyone Thank You and ran out of the courthouse and straight to CRACKER BARREL!!! Pantycakes (Ribbit's word), biscuits, chicken fingers, bacon and chocolate milk somehow made everything better. All 4 of us (yup mom too) napped the whole 2 hour drive home.

We came home and opened up gifts from CC and Papaw while facetiming with them, ate dinner and hung out. WHAT A DAY!!!!!

I should say though that through it all we know that God has blessed us more than we deserve by growing our family and bringing 3 children into our home. We know that he knew the hiccups of yesterday and we feel that soon, not today, not tomorrow, but soon we will be able to laugh about it :).