Happy Court Day!

Legalese has never been so beautiful as this:

"IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the adoption of BABY GIRL MINCHUM, a minor child, by TODD JEFFREY REYNOLDS and BROOKE KALENE REYNOLDS, husband and wife, be and hereby is granted; that said child is hereby adopted as the child of said petitioners; and that the name of the child is hereby changed to SAVANNAH NATALIE REYNOLDS."

That is the last paragraph of the "Decree of Adoption" we brought home with us from the Johnson County Courthouse after our adoption hearing on Monday. The proceedings went fairly quickly. Once the judge came into the courtroom and started, it only took about 10 minutes. What made us anxious was that before he came in and adjudicated our petition for adoption, he poked his head in and asked to see our lawyer, Sarah Johnston, in his office. He kept her back there for about 15 minutes, though it seemed much longer. The entire time we tried to stay positive, but it was hard not to think that there was something wrong.

Sarah's look of "sheesh" when she returned was followed by a smile and a whispered declaration of "we passed." Moments after she rejoined us, the Honorable Judge Lawrence E. Sheppard entered the courtroom and we all stood. He said a few things about our case, swore us in, and directed Sarah to question the "witnesses." She asked me a few simple yes/no questions like, "Have you come to love this child?" and "Do you feel you have the resources to care, provide for, and educate this child?" When she was finished, Judge Sheppard made a few "notes" about the situation with the putative birthfathers, and how, without any type of paternity testing being done, we could not actually be sure that either one of them were the birthfather.

We thought he was leading up to a question about what we would tell Savannah if she ever asked about who her father was—or worse, we thought he might not finalize the adoption until we had some DNA proof of paternity. Instead, he mentioned the signed acknowledgements and relinquishment paperwork we had from both men, and explained how that gives the court jurisdiction to decree this adoption.

His decision is kind of fuzzy in my mind. I fully expected a gavel moment when we knew that Savannah was officially and legally ours. Instead, he said some jargon, and put the court in recess, then Sarah asked "if it would please the court, the parents would like to take a picture with your honor." We were like, wait, that's it? We're done? I totally feel jipped that there was no gavel involved in our day in court.

Here's an awkward picture of us with the judge.


Here's a picture the judge took of us with Sam (our agent) and Sarah (our lawyer).


And, in honor of Court Day and the fact that Savannah is 2 months old today, here's a little video of the pictures we've taken of her in the past month, but never posted.



Go to the board!