It's Official!!!

Baby boy is now Bryce David Cauley! He is legally ours in the state of Texas. We should receive a new birth certificate in a few weeks.

On November 19th we drove up to Dallas and stayed in a hotel downtown. My mom and dad made the drive too. The next morning we were at the courthouse by 8am. Friday's are official Adoption Day for the Dallas area. All hearings are held at the juvenile courthouse just outside of downtown. When our name was called we walked into the court room and went to stand right in front of the judge, who was very, very nice. Apparently, they like to have the adoption's first thing in the morning before getting to the juvenile defendants to lift up the mood in the room. There were a lot of people in the court room, all waiting for their case to come up and all either juvenile's or their unhappy parents. I was suprised to see so many people there and they were all looking at us but pleased to see the smile on their faces when we were done.

First we were sworn in. Shane, Jacob and I all raised our right hands. Jacob was so cute in front of the judge :) Then, our lawyer basically read some statements/questions and Shane answered either yes or no to them. Some of them didn't make any sense to us but we were instructed to say yes to those. I just had to affirm that I agreed with all that Shane said. Then we were done. Here are some more pics from that day:

Waiting for our name to be called.

Being sworn in

Listening to the judge

After we were done, we went to Pappasito's to celebrate. Our wonderful friend, Sherry, joined us. Then mom and dad drove to Longview to see family and we drove to Desoto to ride the bmx track there. It was rainy and cold that night but Bryce and I sat with some friends that we have made there in front of their heater to keep us warm.



We are so thankful to finally have the adoption made official. We keep contact with Bryce's birth mother and she was especially on our minds that day. If it weren't for her and her amazing bravery, Bryce would not be with us. We had something very special to be thankful for this Thanksgiving...Bryce!

Love to all,
Laura