Thankful Thanksgiving

What an amazing November we had. First we finalized our adoption on November 19th, which was National Adoption Day. What a fun day to finalize because the court had lots of extra festivities, including face painting, bounce houses, caricature drawings, free icecream & cake, the Phoenix Suns Dancers and Gorilla,etc. We even got a professional picture taken of us after the hearing. It was such a special day for many reasons but the biggest one of all being that we became Bennett's legal parents. The hearing was only 4 minutes long. Our attorney Ed asked us some questions for the judge, just clarifying the information in our home study and then the judge looked over everything and determined that everything was in place. It was really neat at the end of the hearing when he said that from then on the relationship between us and Bennett would be parent and child. Of course, I was crying. :) Happy tears!

Here is a picture of us with the judge. My camera was not working so well on that day which was a big bummer. Oh well. After the hearing Josh, Bennett and I went to Matt's Big Breakfast in Phoenix with my parents and my sister Sarah. We waited two hours for breakfast in line but it was worth it.

Josh, Me, Bennett, My Dad, My Mom & My Sister Sarah

(my brother Louis had to work and my sister in law was sick)

Us with our wonderful friend and attorney Ed Johnson. He was amazing and we are so grateful for all of his help. If you need anything, give him a call at Johnson & Myers.

Aunt Sarah's sign for Bennett

Then came Thanksgiving. It was hosted by Josh's sister Sara. We had a great time with Kyra & Colton, Aimee & Eric and kids, Sara & Eric and kids, Katrina & Dan and kids and Matt.

Bennett was good and enjoyed being held and looking around at all the excitement. I made a cranberry jello, banana cream pie and toffee pumpkin cheesecake but didn't get a picture of any of them. The food was tasty and I wish I still had leftovers. :)

 The lovely hostess Sara and her adorable Sadie

 Tyler, Dan, Colton, Kyra, Bret & Steve

 We were sealed to Bennett on Black Friday. So I called it White Friday instead. :) Bennett slept through the sealing. It was such a wonderful, spiritual experience, I will remember for the rest of my life. So glad to have some of our family and close friends with us for the special occasion.

 Us with my parents

 Us with Jodi (my sis in law), Louis was working and Sarah was Black Friday shopping

Our Forever Family  (couldn't get any of Bennett looking at the camera with us, he had just discovered his feet)

We had to position him up and get the camera under his line of sight to get this one

We had a luncheon afterwards at my parents. Thanks again Mom and Dad. They spent all morning setting up and making the yummy pasta. Here is our Costco cake. It was so good, even though I'm not really a cake person, I do like their chocolate, chocolate filled, cake.

Bennett's blessing day was Sunday November 27th following Thanksgiving. Josh did a wonderful job with the blessing, he was emotional as well as everyone else in the room. My favorite part of the blessing was when he blessed Bennett to always know how much his birthmom loved him and that he was an answer to many years of prayer. So true, he is such a miracle and having him in our home is a result of a selfless act of love. We love you Cort!

We had a luncheon following his blessing at our home. 45 of our friends and family members squeezed into our home to celebrate. Such a long post, hope you made it through! It was a wonderful month and we are looking forward to Bennett's first Christmas! Gotta run, Bennett needs some love!