We are Finalized!

As you may recall, our agency was Parker's legal guardian...until today! Sang-tae is now legally Parker Sang-tae and a legal member of our family. I must be honest, the day was not that eventful for Jim or I, Parker has always been our son, this was a formality. Finalization allows us to start paperwork to obtain his social security number, passport, etc. In addition, it makes us eligible for a tax credit, which will be helpful with another adoption. Actually, I feel a bit of sadness that he is no longer a Korean citizen, however there may be an opportunity in the future for him to gain dual citizenship.

Thursdays, there are only adoptions on the docket, so there were suckers to calm Parker, and cartoon characters on the bench! The hearing took about 15 minutes and we were on our way. We had plans to eat at a Spanish tapas restaurant but got done too soon(seriously it was breakfast time)! So we celebrated later...I am starting to understand why there may be more "counter restaurants" or kid friendly places in our future. He still did great, but no longer the little boy who will sit for 7 courses. We were excited that my family was in town to join in, my Dad held Parker during the hearing, since he wanted to run through the court room.