The paralegal told us to show up promptly at 9am to court. We had heard horror stories of how long this could take, so we drove two hours to the court with food, drinks, magazines and a nervous feeling.

Our first surprise was that our paralegal had become our lawyer. It was such a long process that our paralegal graduated from law school and became our attorney. We didn’t know this until that morning.

We also didn’t know that she had only tried one case, and she was back in court with the other people trying to get the adoption through. Many people have to go to court multiple times to get adoptions finalized.

After a very short wait, we were ushered into the court. We sat in the back row, and the judge was in the front, with our lawyer right in front of us.

As the judge began his questions, Nancy noticed that our lawyer had a booklet entitled “Trying Adoptions” that she had highlighted and was referring to during the procedure. I doubt that it would happen in the states that way, but that was how it was going.

All six of us were in the back seats, and the babies happily walked between all of us requesting to be picked up at different times. They were having a wonderful time, saying Mama and Daddy and JT and Matt, asking to be picked up, asking to be put down, and noticing all the shoes in the room and how much noise you could make hitting a metal filing cabinet.

The judge then asked why the birth father had not signed off on the adoption. The birth mother had, and I thought:  here we go; it’s going to be a long process. But our attorney consulted her book, and responded that they weren’t even sure who the father was, and that since they were taboo babies, the father would have nothing to do with them.

The judge questioned that, but the social worker was from that tribe, and she was able to elaborate that a taboo child will be abandoned and left for the animals. (We have discovered that there is a tribe that believes that when you have twins, one is evil and one is good, and since you can’t tell which is which, you kill both.)

This was the point where we were really getting nervous, but the judge said he would accept it. Then he looked at the babies, who were making a fair amount of noise, and said, “There are only some people that I’m fine with making a racket in my court.”

Then he said, “Based on the interaction between the babies and the parents, and the babies and the older brothers, the court believes that it is in their best interests to stay with you.”

As Nancy said, the babies pled their own case.

Our reactions were worthy of note. Nancy and I started to cry, Matthew let out a big WHEW (he has had nightmares that they would be taken from us), JT picked up Katie and hugged her and she gave her million dollar smile, and Ben turned to me and said “Cracker?”

Somebody needed to stay focused on the important stuff.

To the many who prayed, to the many who have helped us with the costs involved (we are still not sure of all the costs), to the many who encouraged us through this process, we are as grateful as we can be. Thank you, and we look forward to the opportunity to introduce you to Ben and Katie someday.

Just make sure you have some crackers handy when you do.

Your pal,
Steve

The Dynamic Duo