Adoption Day

Today the adoption was finalized. The girls are officially O and L Penner! We've been talking a lot about what that means. Right when I took this picture, O told the judge that her papers meant that "no one can ever send us away because I like my room a lot!" The judge heartily agreed that these legal documents mean that we are their parents forever and it's good that she likes her room. :)

One thing the court does for adoptive kids is that they each get to pick a teddy bear. The girls spent a lot of the morning role-playing with their bears and right now, they are napping with them in their arms. :)


Some have asked if now that they are adopted if it is OK if we put their faces and names on the blog or on Facebook. Although we COULD now - there is no foster agency telling us what we can and can't do anymore, we do not feel it is in the best interest of the girls. For their safety, we will continue to blur their faces and not use the full names. I can't go into detailed reasons online as to why we do it - just know it is for the best.

After we left the courthouse, Jenetta packed us some lunches and the girls and I headed to Mt. Palomar to play in the snow to celebrate. At the peak, there was still a good 18 inches of snow, although it is melting quickly. Sadly, the observatory (and it's parking lot) were closed due to weather - I'm guessing they just didn't want to plow out the road so city people like us could play in their snow. But there was almost nobody else up there, so we found a place on the side of the road that had a pretty decent sledding hill and some areas of fresh snow to play with.

The girls made a few snowmen:


all of which were promptly destroyed...

... and eaten!


We also found out that a boogie board makes a pretty good sled when the snow is wet!

We brought home a cooler full of snow to play with in the yard - I'll try to pull the camera out for that after nap time.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers for us. Please keep them up. Although a lot changed today, really nothing changed at all. Our routine is still the same, our discipline and structure are still the same, and our love for them is the same. Sometimes it is easy and fun, sometimes it is very difficult and exhausting, but most of the time, it just IS. It's our life now... :)