Adoption Day!

Ben and Grayson have two mommies! Well, we already knew that, and so
did y'all, but now its officially on record as legal and binding. So
if Amy ever tries to claim she doesn't have to pay for their college
tuition, don't let her weasel out of it. He he.

We had an 8:45 am court appearance (don't these schedulers know how
hard it is to get twin boys out the door before 11 in the
morning?!?). Our lawyer wasn't there any too early to give us a
heads up of what to expect, but her assistant called us the night
before to let us know that she would be asking us a lot of questions
and it would be more involved than the guardianship hearing. This
made us a little nervous, but we knew we would do fine. We even had
to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth so help us God. There was a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo
requesting the adoption, under which Nevada laws, blah blah. We
couldn't help but feel a little maverick mom-ish, since there are no
actual Nevada laws specifically allowing same-sex parent adoptions.
But there aren't any that prohibit it, either. So to cover our legal
tooshies, there were lots of questions for us, going on record,
stating that we do in fact have a real relationship, that we clearly
planned to have these children and raise them together, and that Amy
is the best darn mommy two cute boys could ever ask for (ya know,
along with their other best darn mommy), so lets just make sure the
rest of the world is on the same page too.

We are very grateful to our Family Court Judge, as she had to
personally decide that she would grant these kinds of adoptions, when
her other colleagues had chosen not to (not based on moral grounds,
but their interpretation of the vague Nevada statutes). We were
again given the chance to say whatever we wanted on official court
record, and the only thing I could think of was just "Thank You".
And of course I cried through the whole thing. While we face a daily
uphill battle against unfair social and legal policy, it's not very
often that people get to go on record in front of God and everyone
(and a judge, bailiff, lawyer, and court reporter) more than once to
state that you love your family, you are committed to your wife, you
are blessed to have your children, and that you are truly happy.
Then you get to hear her say it in return. Pretty cool.

After all the legal and obligatory stuff was completed, the judge
came down off the bench to hold the boys and tell us how cute they
were. She even gave each of them a little kiss, and granted us some
pictures (which unfortunately all turned out a little blurry, cuz if
you want it done right you just gotta take the pics yourself, ha
ha). Ben and Grayson wore their cool new big boy outfits, and played
very quietly through the proceedings. They were charming and smiley
at all the right times, and made it very easy for Amy to decide that
when it came right down to it, she still wanted to be their mom. :)

Thanks for all the love and support from all of you, we are grateful
for all of our wonderful friends and family that have always treated
our little family with respect. You have all been so kind and made
us feel so...boring. Ha! We really are just the family down the
street with two cute kids, and bills to pay, and lawns to mow, and
play dates to attend, and that's really all we ever wanted.