Gotcha Day

Friday, Feb 26th was the big day. It's been a LONG journey, much longer than we would have ever imagined, but we finally made it to finalization day (exactly one week before his first birthday)!!

We headed to Louisiana on Thursday so that we could get some sleep before the big day. Aunt Mamy of Amy Horton Photography, Aunt Heather, Uncle Bret, Blade, and Chris' Grandma and Papa joined us.

We got to the court house at about 9:15 on Friday morning and Dallas walked in holding my hand. We met up with our lawyer and Mrs. Teri from St. Elizabeth Foundation (our agency) and together we all walked into the court room. Dallas walked past everyone "pushing" the bailiff out of his way on the way in.

We were in the same court room with the same judge that we had when we were there for his birth father's case.

Chris, Dallas and I sat on one side of a table and the judge was on the other.  Judge Haney started by saying, "I know more about your case than I do about most adoption cases and I want you all to know that I am very happy we are where we are today!"

*this is when I started tearing up and it didn't take me long to start really crying*
 

He then asked us a few questions like ...

- "Do you know why we're here today?"
- "What does adoption mean to you?"

- "Do you understand that once you sign this it is as if Dallas is your natural born son and he's your responsible from now on!"

After all the formalities we signed the paper! 

It was over, done, final, Dallas is our son!!

I dried up my tears and we took LOTS of pictures with everyone. Here are just a few from this VERY special day ...

 After we got home we received the paperwork for a new birth certificate which will officially make his name Dallas Scott Lopez and list us as his mommy and daddy.

Dallas was not his given name by his birth mom. She named him Monroe and she was able to keep that original birth certificate. On our drive home from Louisiana we always pass these highway signs and on our way back in Sept I was able to snap this shot. Here is a post from his birth mom's page that makes my heart happy ...

We are so thankful for this amazing gift that she gave us and for the relationship that we have with her. We ask that you please keep her in your prayers as she is dealing with life and it can be hard sometimes!!

 Next blog post coming soon: First Birthday!!