500 Babies: 2010

For the third time in under three years we have had the blessing and privilege of adopting our foster children into our family forever.  You can read about Joe's and Daniel's adoption here and Mikea's adoption here and here.

This time around we were a bit more anxious about the day because it would be the first time venturing out with all 5 children. We spent hours the night before getting ready and actually made it out the door on time. However, that was about the only thing that ran smoothly. Our first trial came when we had to go through the metal detectors at the courthouse. We had 2 diaper bags, 3 activity bags for the big kids, and 1 purse to put through the scanner. Problem was, they were all underneath the double stroller and were wedged in pretty good. We had to take out Rebekah's car seat anyway so she wouldn't have to go through the metal detector, but the bags were still stuck. So we tried to yank out the bags and corral Joe, Dan, and Mikea at the same time. Meanwhile a line of people formed behind us, a line of people all in a hurry to get somewhere. Unfortunately, some of our family members who had planned on attending got sick and couldn't make it and the others received bad directions and didn't arrive at the ceremony until after it was over.   So we were all on our own.

Well, we eventually made it through security and had to walk through a couple of buildings and take an elevator ride to get to the jury room where the ceremony was held. We breathed a sigh of relief and began strategically arranging children in their seats. There were fewer families at this ceremony than in previous months, which meant we sort of stuck out and I wasn't really surprised when a reporter from Channel 12 came over and asked to interview us.  That's when things got really intense for us. We were trying to sit, hold 4 children, keep an eye on a baby in a car seat, and attempt to answer questions as coherently as possible. Both Billy and I were extremely sleep-deprived and worn out from the ordeal of getting everyone to the ceremony. The kids, on the other hand, were highly squirrelly. Joe and Daniel kept grabbing the reporter's microphone, Adrian was head-butting me, eating my necklace, and trying to wiggle out of my lap. Mikea was attempting to sneak away. And Rebekah was due to wake up hungry any minute. And so while we did everything we could to stay calm and look like we had it under control (because we didn't want it to look like we couldn't handle the kids ) in fact it felt like everything was falling apart. Throw in a healthy dose of straight-up terror of being on TV, and you'll understand why the whole thing was incredibly intense and stressful. Though the end result wasn't as bad as I thought. You can read about it here or watch the interview here. Another channel interviewed us after the ceremony for a story on adopting sibling groups. It's supposed to air on their morning show but I haven't seen it yet.

All that aside, what kept us going was the reason we were there: to make Adrian an official member of our family! Here are a few shots of the day: