Happy Adoption Day!

Today we traveled to La Crosse WI for Luciana's court day to make her officially the legal daughter of both Carolyn and Elisa. As we mentioned in our previous blog entry, Wisconsin does not allow same sex second parent adoption, so the procedure to make both of us legal parents is a bit more complicated. Today was the day that this all became official. We were lucky enough to have Bette, Carolyn's mom, and Steve, Elisa's dad, with us to celebrate and witness this great day. Elisa's mom was supposed to have come as well, but she was in Florida taking care of her father (Luciana's GREAT grandpa) recover from pneumonia. She was there in spirit though. We met our lawyer in the lobby of the court house, and she was as excited as we were. She gave Luciana a present- a stuffed Piglet from the Winnie the Pooh collection- very cute. There were four other couples who were doing a similar process as ourselves there as well, so we were all in the courtroom celebrating together. The judge was wonderful- she even gave the kids a stuffed animal to remember the day with- Luciana got a teddy bear as big as her (according to Judge Gonzalez). Luciana was second, and while we waited our turn she smiled and waited patiently by farting in grandpa's arms. It was loud, though the judge was far enough away that we don't think she heard! When it was our turn, we went up and sat by our lawyer, while the grandparents went and sat in the jury booth to take pictures. The whole thing took about 5 minutes, and ended with us walking up to the judge and taking pictures. (She loves to hold the babies!) During the procedure, Luciana took that moment to completely wet her pants, which made her a bit uncomfortable and slightly mad. Luckily the judge loved her anyway, saying how cute she was, and making cooing noises at her to calm her down. Once our turn was over, we still had to deal with a less-than-happy wet-butt Luciana, so we changed her- in the courtroom on a bench! She was much happier afterwards, but it did involve taking off her whole outfit and changing her onesie that was underneath- not many kids can say they have been naked in a courtroom. It was an amazing day, and we were so lucky to have great company and know that we were in the thoughts and prayers of those who could not attend. Thanks for all your love and support!