Finally Finalized
kimberly February 19th, 2010
As of today, Leah is legally our daughter!
Unlike international adoptions from other countries, those from South Korea are finalized here in Ontario, meaning that until now, our adoption agency’s lawyer was Leah’s guardian. In this case, just like with a domestic adoption, once Leah was placed with us we then had six months of progress reports filed before our social worker could recommend that the adoption proceed. The final report was filed in November and then a bunch of paperwork had to be completed and notarized before the adoption could be finalized.
Rather than have the final documentation mailed to us, we opted to have Leah’s adoption finalized in person (mostly for the photo op than anything else), so this morning we headed out to family court where Justice Sherr signed the documents that make us Leah’s family in a legal way. She stole our hearts long ago but now we have the paperwork to go with it.
When Adam’s adoption was finalized, the court stuff took place in the justice’s chambers, but this time we were in an actual court room and had to do the whole “all rise” thing when Justice Sherr entered. Very much more formal but equally emotional for both Todd and me. Adam and Leah really seemed to get the importance of it all; both were completely riveted during the process.
So Leah is now officially a Roy and we couldn’t be happier. Even Adam was excited, which is saying a lot for a kid who tried to figure out how much money he needed to save up from his allowance to buy Leah a plane ticket back to Seoul.
Next stop: Canadian citizenship!
