Brittany Michelle Buck

Today was Brittany's adoption day! She is officially ours, our little Brittany Michelle Buck. She pretty much was in a little princess mood all day long. It took us 11 months, 2 weeks and 3 days to adopt Brittany. Thanks to our little ticker, we know this tad bit of information.

My mom came and brought Aiden since Brittany is out of town on her honeymoon. He pooped in the car on the way there and it was EVERYWHERE!!!! My poor mom was stressed to say the least.

The actual court process lasted, no joke, like 3 mintues. It consisted of our lawyer asking Jeff 10 questions which all the answers were yes, and then the judge saying granted. The judge gave Brittany a little stuffed puppy and sent us on our way. We didn't even have time to record it because Brittany was screaming for CANDY that my mom had brought. It was embarrassing.

Here's the gang, quick snap in the hall before we were told to get out by an officer. LOL

This is our clinician Laura from Depelchin. She is super sweet and was embarrassed when we asked her to take a picture but of course she did it because she never says no about anything. She is wonderful. She will still come out to see Kade but Brittany is done with any other visits ever.

Then we went to Johnny Corino's and ate. Brittany got a apple crisp desert but basically just ate the ice cream.

Jessica brought her new baby Macen and Eva and Eva got some desert too.

"Slurrrrrrp"

Jeff's mom bought Brittany a necklace. The case is engraved with today's date for her adoptin and the locket says B.M.B. for her initials. It is really pretty and really awesome for her to get it. Brittany loved it and wore it until we got home. I just put her down for a nap and didn't want her to strangle herself. LOL

On the back it says Love, Papa and Nana. Brittany tries to say Grandma but it comes out Nana.

Adoption Day

So tomorrow is Brittany's long awaited adoption day! YAY! Finally! July 15th will mark her one year mark with us. This means she will officially be ours 13 days shy of that. How exciting is that? I would never have thought the day would come. Realistically when we first set out to adopt I allowed a year in my head to finish the process. Looks like I was right.

I really have been pretty chill about it. Until today. Today I sit at work anxious to leave and wake up in the morning to head to court. I am mentally noting what to wear and to bring a camera to take photos and to record it. I am trying to decide what Brittany should wear and what I should dress Kade up in.

Kade's process is really keeping me grounded in all of this. Without it I would probably have a huge panic attack over the simple idea of being done and rid of CPS and DDC. No more social workers visits, clinician visits, reports or red tape for Brittany. No more stress about something screwing up and her being taken away. She will be a Buck for life. On the same note, no more random 150 dollar check for clothes. LOL That is the only thing I will miss. bah ha ha, isn't that stupid? Nothing compared to the relief of freedom and total control to raise our child. OUR CHILD. Finally will be legally parents. Not just foster parents but adoptive parents. Brittany will have her claim on a small branch of our family tree. She will be able to grow roots in our history and have a stable childhood. She will have a family that loves her unconditionally and won't be scared of never feeling loved or wanted. I must say though, that has never been the case for Brittany. Someone has always loved and wanted her. Prayed for her and searched for her, all her life. That someone was me and Jeff and she will always been aware of that.

I had dreams about her before we met her. I knew her in my heart before I knew her name. Literally. Surely I posted about it somewhere before. Her name in my dream was Layla, which means "Dark as night", "Dark beauty" and "born out of darkness" she is in fact all three of these. I saw her eyes in my dream, a child who knew so much more then her age showed. Even still her eyes hold more wisdom then her little body develops. She has an old soul and is very much aware.

It's funny because I had this dream of her around the time we did IVF. 6/2007. It showed her as a young baby, and I guess around that time she would have been two months old. I knew without a doubt we would parent our Layla somehow and here she is... forever ours.