Our Boy

I wrote this post about how Locke has officially come to be apart of our family. But when our lawyer Scott and Judge Cobb offered to let us reschedule the signing of Lochlan's document, I jumped at the chance. So we went to the court house last Thursday (July 16th) to get some pictures and to go through the ceremony for Lochlan. 

Scott, Cathy Tuma (our social worker), Mimi and Baba (my parents), Grandma and Grandpa (Cliff's parents), Cheryl, Katelyn, Ethan, Luke and baby ?, and Chris, Amber, Isaac, and Abigail Korenthal came to celebrate with us. 

We all dressed up and stood in respect when Judge Cobb entered the room. She was very kind and casual with us all. She took the time to explain a few things to the kids, which incidentally they did not understand, but were interesting for us. Things like why the bar was called the bar and what the history of the circuit court was and she held Lochlan. But the next pic is our lawyer Scott holding him...

Then she let the kids all pretend they were in a jury by sitting in the seats. She even let all of the kids take a turn at smacking the gavel while sitting in HER chair. They all got a bit of a power trip....

They kind of look like a real jury huh? Very pensive. Or confused.

 

Meanwhile... Lochlan was absolutely screaming. It was so sad for me because he really is such a good boy and pretty easy going! I was starting to get kind of frustrated and was practically in the judges personal chambers trying to get him to calm down when I looked down and realized that maybe the brand new baby shoes that I crammed Locke's feet into may be hurting....

Sure enough! I took them off and he instantly snuggled into his blanket and went to sleep! Oh the guilt!! 

Well, after that, he did great and we were able to hear ourselves think again. Then we got some good pics and Judge Cobb was able to declare that Lochlan was now apart of our family. 

One funny memory, besides the fact that we were cutting off Lochlan's blood supply to his feet was when the judge picked up Cambria and put her on her desk and said, "Let's see if you can hold really still. OK?" and Bria just stared her down like only Bria can do. She didn't move a muscle and just glared at her! It was hilarious and quite prolonged. It was made everyone laugh including Judge Cobb who thought it was really funny. 

One of the other main reasons I wanted to go was to thank her personally for what she did for our friends the Chupps when it was apparent that Selah was dying. Scott, our (and their) lawyer rushed the paperwork over to her and she quickly did everything needed to finalize Selah's adoption even though it was a couple months early. After she signed it, Scott rushed it up to Doernbechers. It arrived just a couple hours before she died and when she did she officially had the name Chupp. I was so happy to be able to thank Judge Cobb for that. She remembered too and though she was a professional, she began to tear up but quickly recovered.

We are so thankful that everyone came who could (the date was very last minute). 

But most of all, we are thankful that the Lord is faithful and that Lochlan is our boy now (again and officially)! 

   

Man this kid is cute!

We then went to a nearby park to celebrate and enjoy a picnic lunch. The kids played and we talked. It was a fun day!

We LOVE you Lochlan Tilman Benintendi!!