Saturday, November 15, 2008

A Long Time Coming!

Happy National Adoption Day!!!

Today was Silas' re-adoption! Our appointment was at 1:00pm, choosing to have our court date today meant lots of extras and a great big party for the newly re-adopted kids. Silas LOVED it! We were blessed to be able to mark this day with Beth and Ruhama. Ruhama was adopted just six weeks before Silas, they came from the same orphanage and we live within 15 miles of eachother. They have become great friends of ours and it truly was a blessing to be there for eachothers re-adoption. Beth has lots of family here. We don't, so we had our sweet friends Tammy and Brian come with us to celebrate this day. Tammy and I prayed together once a week during our adoption process, Silas was prayed into our family long before we even saw his sweet face.

After much debate on whether today was the day we mark his citizenship or if its after we file the papers with INS everyone agrees (even the lawyer) that TODAY is the day! We've waited nine long months for this peice of paper! Pretty much an awesome day of celebration. We are so blessed by this little boy. Today he officially became Silas, the US citizen! File the papers with INS and we're home free!



Waiting for the elevator to go up to the court room.


Eddie was our faithful guide, he was awesome and even posed for a picture.



Posing for pictures, the judge was amazing, so patient and kind. His wife was there taking pictures of each case presented. They asked if they could just deny the adoption plea and take Silas home. Umm NO!



Big brother watching intently. Ruhama was in the same orphanage as Silas, adopted by Beth, we've become great friends and keep our kids in contact so they can grow up together. They were adopted just two months apart and we live within 15 miles of eachother. She was also re-adopted today, her family came to witness Silas' re-adoption as well.

This is for you buddy! Mommy and Daddy being sworn in to tell the whole truth and nothing but.



The district attorney had mom and dad spell our whole names, she asked us some questions about our family and about you. Judge Cohen read over some things and asked if we understood or had any questions.
After a little speech about family, the best interest of Silas, us agreeing that we wanted to be your mommy and daddy forever, and you being our son always, Judge Cohen granted just that. He gave Silas his name change making it officially Silas Esubalew David Shubin. We're SO happy to be your forever family sweet boy. Mommy was a little teary all over again, it was a big relief to have this behind us, to make your name official and to make you a citizen.

Judge Cohen was amazing! He let us take all the time we needed for pictures, Silas asked how he got up there so you were thrilled when you got to check it out!

The whole family!

And the lady who helped make this day happen!

After Beth & Ruhama had their adoption finalized we all stood with judge Cohen.


Two happy mama's!

Waiting on us to get the docs certified.


By the flags outside of course!

Thank you Tammy, Brian, Hannah, & Josh for coming to celebrate Silas' big day with us!! We love you! Tammy did a SUPER job video taping the proceedings and taking pictures for us afterwards. Beth THANK YOU for taking pictures too. :)


And the big bite of celebratory CAKE!


Today was a big day of celebration for our little fam. It was also Sarah's birthday and we wish her a VERY happy birthday!!! Love you and miss you!!



18 comments:

Emily B. said...

Congratulations! Such and exciting day... and what a relief to have it behind you. Many blessings, Emily

Heidi Klopfenstein said...

Congratulations!! I got teary reading, what an awesome day it was!

Aimee- said...

Okay--so that brought me to tears! Very touching! Thank you for sharing your very special day! Silas has touched us all. I am so thankful to have this sweet little guy live across the street and to be able to watch him grow! Congratulations all SIX Shubins!! Love you guys bunches!

Lauren said...

YEAHHHHH FOR SILAS (and the rest of the Shubin group)! That is awesome and I am so glad to hear about this! (Or something like that) LOL

BTW...Nichol's hair looked pretty in that picture of her from behind!

Nicholas said...

Awww! Congratulations again! Yay Silas! You're a wonderful family and I can't wait to see what your future holds w/Africa and Ethiopia!

And YES, awesome on the RLS, CHC post! We're in!

Christy. said...

I got teary reading this. I am so happy for you all!

Unknown said...

Congratulations my sweet friend! Looks like you guys had a great day!

Brooke said...

Yeah!!!!!!! So happy for you guys. Love the pictures and love, love, Silas's hair-do. So cute. I'm waiting for Birhanu's hair to grow just a little more, than we are on to some fun hair-do's.

Congratulations! Happy Adoption Month.

Sarah said...

Ok, so I'm crying! Thanks for sharing so soon, that way I could see what i missed out on. I really do wish I could have been there. Yeah Silas!! Everything is complete. What a journey! Congratulations you guys, give everyone hugs for me.
P.S. Thanks for the birthday wish!

God's Girl said...

How awesome this was. : )
Silas now has a birthday; a gottcha day; and an Arizona forever family day! That's the way to celebrate!

Love you guys!!!!

My Blessed Life said...

What a blessing it was to be there thank you for allowing us to be part of this. We felt very honored. Silas we love you dude. God bless you all.

My Blessed Life said...

PS. Happy Birhtday Sarah we love and miss you.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Congratulations! What amazing favor God gave you all with the judge that day :-)

Anonymous said...

Hooray!!! :D I'm so happy for all of you! :D

Mom to many said...

Oh Congratulations! Read my blog - I JUST posted about readoption and I am sooo confused about our great state of SD.... your process seemed so different...

The Parsons Flock said...

Horaaaay!! What a fabulous day for your family!

I Love Purple More Than You said...

Happy Re-adoption!!! And I still love his hair!

drea said...

Congratulations!! What a great day. I loved all your pictures they really touched my heart.
I am so glad that the Lord brought us together, I feel like he just continues to show us other adoptive parents, what an encouragement.
Love you lots