Charles Tucker's Adoption Day-February 4, 2011

Last week, around Tuesday, Dee came home and said, "I am about to file our papers to adopt Charles Tucker? Are you ready to go to court any time they tell us to go in the next couple of weeks?" Me: "You mean any day we will adopt him? Wow! That was fast!" Sure, enough, Dee filed the papers on Wednesday and our court date was set for Friday. It usually takes about six months to adopt in the states once you get home, but ours only took five weeks. Way to go Dee for working so hard on this!! So that is why you have been staying late at work???!!

So Friday morning before our court appearance, we headed to the airport to pick up an adoption blog friend, Sara, whom I had never met in person. She came in town for the Created For Care retreat for the upcoming weekend, but decided to spend the day with us, before the retreat started. Well, Sara, I hope you enjoyed our crazy family!?!

 Yes, I got them to pose in their p.j.s and boots, I could not resist taking a picture before we headed to the airport! Can you believe my crew is cooperating so well these days!! So fun for this mama!

It was so neat to finally meet Sara face to face after a year of knowing her through her blog and occassional texts and phone conversations. She is about to go pick up one of Charles Tucker's best buddies from the babies home in Uganda. Please pray she gets a court date fast, hopefully in the next couple of weeks!!!

So around 10:30, we headed to the court house downtown to make Charles Tucker officially a DeBardeleben. We got there early just to make sure we did not miss our court appearance.We found a small corner for the kids to play and run around. Then around 11:30, we entered the Judges' chambers and within three minutes, Charles Tucker became part of our family! It was somewhat anticlimatic, with our kids making noise and acting out, but thankfully we brought Sara along to cry for us and help us realize the magic of it all. Charles Tucker DeBardeleben is officially an orphan no more!! That is definitely something to cheer about!!

Then daddy had to go make some copies before we left of all the documents, so we let the kids run around a little bit more. Look how excited Henry is about his new brother!!!

Let me present to you "Charles Tucker DeBardeleben"

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine. Isaiah 43:1

What a privilage it is to be chosen to be Charles Tucker's mommy. He is a precious little boy with a savior who loves him more than I will ever have the capacity to love him. He shows me more everyday what a blessing he is to our family. I am excited and thankful for the rode we have ahead of us and I pray the Lord will show me more and more how to best be the mommy he has called me to be to our new son.

**Sara and I then headed up to the Created for Care retreat to hang out with 250 other mommies who love orphans.. More on that later!