Noah Michael: Adopted!

Another amazing adoption day in the books for the Westbrooks family. It was a little more chaotic than Maya’s adoption day, in part because getting four people ready and wrangling a toddler in addition to a 6-month-old is a little more chaotic generally. But it was wonderful and felt monumental and celebratory. Gosh are we lucky. God chose these little beings for us to love of forever and ever. No take backs, no do-overs, just endless love for these perfect souls.

Want the play-by-play of adoption day? After we got everyone ready in the morning (except Noah, because he can’t be trusted not to spit up on his outfit for a 45 minute drive), we realized we were late. Before we even left. I’ll half blame Houston traffic, but we sort of just forgot how long it takes to get to the courthouse. I’m pretty sure they build in a little buffer when they tell you to show up at 8:30 in the morning, but it was still a little hard to remind myself that as we were driving the whole 45 minutes already late.

But we got there and found our lawyer and were whisked right into the courtroom. Noah needed a quick bottle before we got started, but then Judge Ronald Pope called us up to finalize Noah’s adoption. Our lawyer asked us a few questions about how long Noah had been with us, and our caseworker, Amy, answered similar questions. Then we got to answer whether we felt it was in Noah’s best interest and in our best interest as a family for him to remain with us forever. Yes, yes we do.

Judge Pope granted the adoption and then everyone clapped! We got to take a few photos in the courthouse before heading outside for a few more.

We were so excited to have both our sets of parents and Michael’s brother there to celebrate this time.

We followed our harried court appearance with a much more relaxing brunch at Revival Market near our house. It’s where we celebrated Maya’s adoption, and they treat us so well over there. And then we headed home to nap those babies before we hosted a little party at the Airbnb where our parents were both staying. The sun came out for the first time in weeks and we all sat on the deck, celebrating love. Our friend Andrew came and took photos for us and I’m so grateful to have these. I’ve already loved reliving this flash of a moment several times over.

That’s our whole crew on the far side. I think the guy in the foreground was maybe in the courtroom for something a little more serious? We were probably the lightest load of the day!  Maya was very quiet until the part where Judge Pope broke out the stuffed animals. She’s carried that kitty around for days since!  This is our whole adoption day crew — to my right is Depelchin’s birth mom liaison, Leah, who worked with Noah’s birth mom since March of last year. Exactly the time that we decided for sure to stay a little longer and commit to switching agencies to adopt again. And to her right is Amy, the caseworker who dealt with all our paperwork and then visited us every month since Noah was born. Michael’s mum is on my other side, and his brother Aaron on the far side of her. And then my parents are on the farther other side. Don’t you love Noah’s jeans? They’re Maya hand-me-downs! Ha!  My very short mom got lost in this photo, but we gained Sophie, who was one of our flower girls when we got married! Maya was a little grumpy because we took the Oreos my mom let her get from the vending machine away.  After lunch, I wanted to take a few photos with this sign, which Kristin from One Tiny Heart made us the day before. Luckily, there was a blooming tree right across from the restaurant where we could snap just a few more photos.  Both of these children desperately needed a nap by this point! I’ll also take this moment to let you know that Michael came home several weeks ago with Maya’s shoes. He had been shopping for sandals to wear to the pool for himself and walked in with these red velour shoes in exactly the right size and said, “She has to wear these to adoption day!” Why yes, yes she does. And she did!

What a glorious whirlwind of a day. The general chaos meant we didn’t livestream it like we did with Maya’s, but I’ll have a short video to share next week. Thank you to everyone who was so darn excited for our family this week. You made this celebration so special!