Isaiah is official!

Whew! After 8 months, Isaiah is finally an official member of the family! South Carolina makes it mandatory to finalize an adoption in the state the baby was born in, so Aaron, Isaiah, and I headed out on a Monday morning for sunny SC. Isaiah made it impossible to get through the airport, because he smiled at everyone who looked his way, and we must have gotten stopped by at least 15 people who had to ooh and aah over him. We did manage to make our flight, however, and the amazing couple who let Isaiah and me stay with them after he was released from the hospital asked us to stay with them again! Seeing Gene and Kitty again was awesome -- they are so hospitable, and Isaiah loves them. They're pretty much like another set of parents to us, and Aaron loved finally getting to meet them. So, after a quick hello, we headed down to Columbia to see Isaiah's birthmom, Heather, and her mom and sister-in-law.

Aaron was a little nervous about meeting Heather, esp. since I'd gotten to know her really well before and we were already good friends. However, right from the start we were all laughing and talking like old friends. Isaiah chose that day to decide to be a mama's boy and wouldn't let anyone else hold him, which made me so sad. Poor Heather. They totally understood that it's his age, but still. We prayed hard that the next day he would open up a little bit and decide to be friendly. My guess is that he was so tired of all the strangers in the airport touching his hair, pinching his cheeks, and tickling his toes that he didn't want to see anyone.

Anyway, Day 2 of the trip we ate a huge southern breakfast made by Kitty and Gene, and then we headed down to meet Heather and her parents for lunch (which we weren't hungry for but ate anyway, b/c heck, it's the south and that's what you do). Isaiah was in a better mood and let Heather and her parents hold him, and gave them some pretty good smiles. Then we said goodbye to Heather's parents, and Heather and her sister-in-law led the way to the courthouse! It was pretty cool when we were introducing ourselves to the lawyer (whom we've never met) and he asked who Heather was, and she replied that she's the birthmom. I'm betting that not many adopted babies have their birthmom and birthaunt at the court hearing. We got to go before the judge and had to give a testimony ("Do you understand that this adoption is permanent? Do you have any other children? How old? Do you believe you have a good marriage? etc"). (For the record, we didn't have to give a testimony for Malachi's adoption.) Heather was holding Isaiah right outside the door, since he chose that particular time to start babbling about something at the top of his lungs. And the judge asked a few questions, they called the thing final, and we took pictures with Heather, and then with the judge. It was so cool -- not traditional, but very cool. After the 15 minute court appearance, we headed to downtown Columbia to meet some of Heather's friends at a coffee shop. We got to meet her friends and introduce Isaiah to them. He, of course, charmed everyone.

You know, a lot of people think it's weird that we have such a great relationship with Isaiah's birthmom, but I think it's awesome. We're really hoping she will always be a part of Isaiah's life. He's a lucky guy, because he's loved by not just one set of parents, but two. And he gets all kinds of presents from his birthfamily too. He's a pretty lucky little guy (though I'm pretty sure we're even more blessed by having him).