November ended up being one of our most exciting months of the year. We spent the month counting our blessings and giving thanks for so very much.
The first couple of weekends in November we kept busy helping friends move and catching up with other dear friends. We got in some awesome family time and celebrated Annie’s 6 month birthday.
The second week of November our social worker came down for our final post placement visit. The following Saturday, November 19th, our county hosted a local Adoption Day Celebration. Annie’s adoption was finalized along with 14 other children! The day started out with some crazy freezing rain and some of our dear friends north of us were unable to come down. Many others were able to brave the weather and we had over 55 friends and family members join us in the courtroom for the official ceremony and at our celebration dinner afterward at a local Irish pub. It was such an amazing day! Although she has felt like ours from the moment her birth parents placed her in our arms, it felt amazing to have the adoption finalized and know that our sweet girl was officially, legally, our daughter. I smiled so much that day that my cheeks hurt for two days afterward! See evidence below - our official courthouse picture.
A few days later we loaded up the car and drove out to Denver, CO to spend Thanksgiving with my family. We had a great time! Besides enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and her family, and then dessert with my mom and sisters, we had lots of time to relax and just hang out with family. On Friday we took all of the nieces and nephews to Build-a-Bear Workshop where we made Annie her first official bear. We had to make a quick stop at St. Nick’s Village to pick up our 2011 Christmas ornaments (little ballet shoes for Annie, and a snowman couple with baby for the three of us). We ended the day at White Fence Farms with my sister and nephew celebrating our anniversary. Saturday we enjoyed a great family dinner at Cheddars, and got in lots of quality time with the family. We ended up getting a bit more quality time after our car broke on Saturday night. After much drama with the auto shop, we finally got our car back on Monday evening, drove thru the night and it home early Tuesday morning and started getting ready for the next big event…



