Today (ok it was Monday...) Liya's adoption was finalized in the United States. This means she is granted the full legal rights of being our child and is now a US citizen! Her name was also legally changed from Ephrata Travis to Liya Ephrata.
A court appearance during a toddler's naptime is not the greatest idea anyone ever had. I was going to write about how our day went but can't ever seem to get to it so I'll just abbreviate a bit. I will say we had to pry crackers out of Liya's hands before the judge walked in the room because the sign on the door said "No food or drink allowed in the courtroom, no exceptions!" I'm betting they wished they made exceptions. Envision a toddler running amuck (in a delirious sort of way) in an otherwise tranquil courtroom. Confining her to a seat ends no better than the aforementioned cracker incident. She ended up in the court reporter's booth several times saying some very enthusiastic, mostly unintelligible things to her and threw some nice tantrums when Travis removed her. She's probably on record wailing "Momma!!!" and also saying repeatedly "Hi momma! Hi momma!" when I had to take the stand. When Travis took the stand he had to say he didn't know what I had said. Our attorney then asked the judge if he had any questions about my testimony. He just smiled and said he didn't hear what I had said either.
Travis' Update: I would have to say without a doubt that this the second worst part of the whole adoption process. The first obviously was sitting next to a guy having a 13-hour panic attack on the flight home because he was scared out of his mind to fly. That should give you a sense of just how awful it was trying to manage this hungry and tired toddler.
Waiting for our court appearance with crackers in hand.
Looks innocent enough, right?
Running amuck in the courtroom.
Sitting still for a half a second. Of course that was before court was in session.
New US citizen. Those smiles may have been manufactured.
My postings are pathetic I know. I'd love to blog more, but that would require giving up something else like dishes, sleep, clean clothes, showering, morning quiet times...not enough hours in the day. Anyway in an attempt to keep track of some milestones I thought I would write down some things that Liya is saying at 15 months. This list of words/phrases is what she will say without us asking her to say them, though she will attempt to repeat most things when asked (if she feels cooperative). At this point Travis and I are probably the only ones who can tell what she is saying. It's so incredible to hear her add new words almost daily.
hi
bye
See you!
I love you!
mama
dada
Liya
Piper (Piper no!)
Squeaker (Squeaker no!)
apple
banana
cheese
cracker
cereal
Bible
ball
thank you
There you go
Get down!
help
out
shoe
sock
car
no!
yeah
tickle
Good girl!
One, two, three, four, five
fish
hippo
rhino
puppy
cow
orca
turtle
mouse
zebra
Peek-a-boo!
baby
all done
sticker
stop
book
dirty
eeew!
uh oh
Where are you?
snow
tv
snack
eat
Last year at this time I was longing to know my child. I had been sure that we would be celebrating our referral with family over the holidays, but a few weeks before Christmas our first match fell though. It was a lonely Christmas, not to mention the two of us got snowed in on Christmas day. Now a year later we are a family of three, exactly how we were meant to be. I am still amazed by the way God knit our little family together. This was definitely worth the wait!
The one year old is almost as big as the three year old.
Liya got a sled for Christmas from my parents. As you can see Liya loved her sled and being out in the snow and cold. In fact, she loved it so much that she took the longest nap of her life (3 hours 10 minutes!, ordinary = 1 hour 20 minutes) afterward and even took her nap 1.5 hours earlier than usual.
