Finally Final! {Elliana's Adoption Day}

Last Friday was a very special day for our family! Our daughter became officially ours forever! Won Sa-ra became Elliana Sa-Rang and a citizen of the United States of America!


Although in our eyes this precious girl has been ours from the moment we saw her, in the eyes of the government she was under the guardianship of our agency and not our legal child until one week ago. So you can see what a very special day this was for us!


We dressed her in her red white and blue and headed down to the courthouse.
She also wore her little bracelet that she was wearing when we met her in Korea as a reminder to us that although she is now an American she also has a special Korean heritage that we don't want to forget. It has her Korean name engraved on it.


It was an extra special day because our good friend's son who was adopted from China was having his court day too. Here's a look at the line up of our kids as they waited to be called into court.

Yes, that is 15 kids between 3 families and one of our nephews was not there!

Once we were called in for our turn, the kids took their seats in the jury box. :-)


Swearing in as Elliana's legal parents to never abandon her and to treat her as our own child.


After we were done and everyone clapped she started clapping and smiling too. She has a way of making anyone smile. I could tell that the judge loved this day of the week- probably the only time court is a happy time!


It's offical!


The boys wanted a turn in the judge's seat



Then it was Mr. Braxton's turn. This little guy has an amazing story that I promise to post about soon. He came home a month before Elliana and it was such a blessing to be able to celebrate this day with our friends.

The whole gang!


I did not get a good picture of the two of them together and I am hoping my friend Tamera did. This was about the closest I got to them standing next to eachother- lol!




Our gang minus a few. Ryan and Samuel were gone to get his cast off at Shriners and my grandma and aunt had already left.


Someone was proud to be an American!



We got home to find a little surprise for Elliana and I. A very sweet daddy had sent flowers to his girls for her adoption day and my birthday that was a few days later.


Oh daddy we love you!

Elliana and I blew him kisses!



So one year and 10 days after we saw that tiny baby's face for the first time, On March 12, 2010 the U.S. courts declared her our daughter forever- Praise the LORD!

***And as wonderful as it is to be an official American citizen, more importantly we pray that she would be a citizen of Heaven. That she would grow up knowing the love of Christ and enter into His kingdom. And as amazing as it is for her to be adopted and officially a part of our family, we pray that she will grow up knowing how much more God desires for her to be adopted into His family. That He chose her to be His
child and will never ever leave her or forsake her.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be ADOPTED as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will..."
Ephesians 1:3-5