On Thursday we went to court to finalize Laiya's adoption! It was a wonderful ceremony - the judge (Judge Patrick Hillary) made it so personal! He started out talking to Laiya and telling her that she didn't have to be nervous. He would just have to ask her a few questions and then we would be able to take pictures and walk around the court room. He began by asking her if she understood why we were all there and, in her usual quiet voice, she said "yes". I was sitting next to her and could barely here her so he said "honey, you're going to have to speak a little louder and into the microphone." When he asked her again if she understood why we were there, she leaned forward and said "yup!" Then he began the questions and one of them was "did anyone bribe you and say that they would give you something if you said that you wanted to be adopted by Dave and Marva Lubben?". She leaned up to the microphone and said, so sweetly, "yes"!! Oh, my! Thankfully he realized that she didn't understand the question, so he re-worded it and changed her answer!
It was a very memorable day for us. Our social worker, Ginny Schutter, gave a very nice recommendation to the judge, and many family members had nice things to say about Laiya being a part of our family, too. A neat thing about Ginny - she was my social worker for Erica and Emily 25 and 26 years ago too! She said that was a 'first' for her - to be called by a family 25 years later to have a home study done again. We are so happy to have Laiya as our daughter. We know it was always in God's plan for her to be our daughter - we just had to wait for everything to fall into place in "HIS" time!
Laiya testifying
Dave, Marva, Laiya and Judge Hillary
Laiya with our social worker, Ginny
All the family members that came to witness the ceremony, along with Judge Hillary (that's Joan and Isaac hiding in the back on the left)
Grandpa and Grandma Zeeff came up from Florida on Wednesday, so they were able to be there too.
Isaac and Lyvia were there in their red, white and blue and carrying flags and balloons, to help celebrate!
Laiya getting a hug from her sister, Emily
Laiya's adoption is finalized!
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2 comments:
Congratulations, what a special day!
Blessings and Happy New Year
Barb
That sure was a special day. So glad I could be there to share it with you! Laiya is such a blessing to our family and we thank God for bringing her to you and to us! Love you!
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