How to get a free teddy bear in 14 months.

It's been somewhat of a whirlwind week.  We left Simi at 8:30pm in order to travel the 6 hours to St. George, thinking that we were being brilliant in that the kids would sleep most of the way, thus making the trip seem shorter.  Yeah, well, that only works if said kids go to sleep.  Abbie only slept about 1/2 an hour and whined/cried the rest of the way.  She was SOOO tired but just couldn't relax long enough to get all of the way asleep.

The rest of the trip was a breeze in comparison since we only had 4 hours left of the trip, stopped for goodies at the Cheese Factory in Beaver, UT and the kids watched movies with the headphones.  I LOVE modern technology!

Being here has been great, and we've seen as much family as we could.  We had an appointment with the case worker and then a four hour adoption class on Thursday so Great-Grandma and Grandpa Shippen became willing babysitters for the day.  

Friday - emotions were running high just going to the court house.  It was really wonderful to have so much support there.  Both of our parents, Aunt Kay, Aunt Julie and Cousin Jen were there from our side of the family and the kids maternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents and great-uncle and Aunt Brittani were there.  Despite it being lunch and nap-time for Abbie and Matt they did great.  We filed into the court room and Shaun and I and the kids all squeezed around one of the desks before the judge.  They swore in the caseworker and Shaun and I.  Matt was so tired/bored that he kept putting his head down on the table.  Once the boring stuff got out of the way they let us walk back around through the back hall and back in another door so we could go up to the judge's desk and let the kids sign the document and bang the gavel.  As soon as the judge's door opened and we started walking in, Abbie saw the group of about 12 teddy bears sitting on the side desk and just went right up and grabbed the one she wanted.  She was barely separated from it for the rest of the day.  The other kids got to pick one too and all picked one that totally fit them.  Of course, we all know that I really have FIVE kids because Shaun's just a big kid at heart, so of course he got to have one too.

We were all emotional and it was really wonderful to be together for the adoption.  It's somewhat surreal and hard to believe that it's OFFICIAL.  I'm a mom.  Happy Mother's Day to me!  I couldn't pick better kids if I tried.  They're loving and helpful, happy and beautiful, funny and bright.  Just amazing.  Everyone has asked if we did okay, going from zero to four overnight.  The only way I can explain it is that they just fit.  We've felt blessed to be so included in their biological family tree and we're proud to add them to ours.

JoAnn and Craig threw us a celebratory block party, and they really did a great job.  It was wonderful to meet people I've just heard about and the kids LOVED seeing all their friends and family.  JoAnn introduced our newly formed family to everyone and presented me with a beautiful silver and diamond necklace that has a heart with a mother and child in the center.  What a sweet reminder of this momentous day.

Well, the house is asleep, but I just had to blog to commemorate the day.  I promise to post pictures soon.

As a side note... we've submitted our tape to Extreme Home Makeover.  It's a complete long-shot, but we've exhausted the other options and it's our last chance at building a home to replace the one we lost.  Please keep us in your prayers that some opportunity opens up for us for a new home.  I'll try to convert some of the video so I can post it on here as the kids were just precious on the tape.

Love you all, and big hugs to all the women out there.  Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, aunts, grandmas, sisters, wives and daughters.  You're awesome!

-Kristy