I really don’t understand all the reasons, but there is a requirement that when a step-parent wants to adopt a step-child, there is a 1 year mandatory waiting period. You can start all the paperwork before that year is up, but the adoption can’t take place until that 1 year mark has been reached. This is the “dragging its feet” part. That deadline was 1 month ago.

Johanna and I mailed the last of the paperwork shortly after that 1 year milepost, and were wondering how long we would have to wait to hear from our lawyer. As of Friday last week, we still hadn’t heard…so we decided to call and find out what he knew. On Monday of this week, he hadn’t heard anything, but expected that the courts were getting caught up from the weekend (Utah now closes all gvt. offices on Fridays, shorter work weeks). Tuesday, he called us and asked “Can you make a 10:15 court appearance on Thursday?”

Wow. That was the “really move” part.

So today we went to the courthouse, and the Judge looked over the papers. The lawyer asked me a whole bunch of “just answer yes to these, so we can get it all on record” type of questions. After a few comments on how cute our kids were, the judge said in a very anti-climactic sort of way, something to the effect of “Congratulations. This file is now sealed, and this adoption is completed.”

What?! That’s it?! That only took 15 minutes!

Now, lest you think I am not as excited about an event as life-changing as this, worry not. I really AM excited!!! I was just really expecting something more. The closest I can come to describing the feeling is to say it’s just like getting released from a mission (y’all who have done that know what I mean.) It’s way simpler than your imagination makes it out to be.

And so, Aiden and James are now officially members of the Dodge family. Their names are officially changed in the courts – now we just wait for new birth certificates to arrive and go get new social security cards. Johanna needs to get her name changed at the social security office as well (I give y’all permission to tease her about being so prompt…but politely…)

It’s not quite as big an event as when Glen was born, I doubt anything is as life-changing as the birth of a child. But still, I think it’s pretty dang cool!

Our Ford Windstar has just become a real Dodge Caravan.