It's official...Gracie is ours!!!

I survived today with only 1 pill! I took that right before we left when I realized that the dress Lucie was wearing showed her new temporary tattoo. It is right on her chest and it's a huge cockroach!! So attractive. I scrubbed her until her skin was red and she started to cry....so opted to put a little cover up on it so the colors of blue, green and black didn't show up as much!!

What a GREAT day!! And of course, as expected it was full of laughs and tears. We left the house at 7:00 AM with our friends, The Tomczak's in tow... It took us about an hour to get there and then we waited another 30 minutes for our lawyer to show up...which she did!! Yes!! We headed to the court house right on time for our 8:30 appointment.

The court house was nothing like I expected. How long do I have to live here to understand that what I think things should be like is definitely NOT how Nicaragua is!! The court house was an old building (I mean about to fall down) with 2 chairs, an open office, no air conditioning, and several employees. The judge was there but the 2nd in comand, not sure what his title is, had not shown up yet. So we waited. After about 30 minutes, Gracie started to hold her private area (working on that) and telling me she had to go to the bathroom. We were given instructions as to where it was and I started to worry as we headed towards the end of the building. The bathroom light didn't work - so we had to keep the door open. There was no toilet paper and the toilet wouldn't flush so we added to what was already deposited there - I know, eeewww!! I pulled out my tissue and then my anti-bacterial wipes and we were set!! When there are only 2 chairs and 4 kids, that's a problem. As soon as one child sits, the other one HAS to as well. Thank goodness my pill was working and I kept a cool head and continueD to work out this issue with time constraints for each child.

We waited about 1 1/2 hours before our guy showed up and then they called our name to go see the judge. Again, no court room, no black robe, and 2 chairs. I really wanted all my girls to experience this (what in the world was I thinking and when will I learn?!?!?!) so we all piled in - me, Gracie, Scarlett, Lucie, Freddy (translator), Nubia (lawyer), her son (lawyer assistant) and a representative from the Consejo.

The judge was checking everyone's name and had to make a correction to our form to include both Lucie and Scarlett - so as we were waiting, the judge started to ask Gracie some questions.
I had been prepared for this - I was told that the questions would include; Do you love your Mommy? What is your name? Do you love your sisters - your Daddy? Do you want to live in the United States? Well, for whatever reason, the judge didn't ask any of these questions but only one question...."Martita, do you know any words in English?" She shook her head "yes" and he asked "what words do you know?" Gracie started to smile and started singing....yes, SINGING the song from the movie Annie "Tomorrow, tomorrow I love you, tomorrow, your only a day away...." Well, everyone started to laugh, which just encouraged our little singer to continue (did I mention that Gracie sings about as well as Lucie dances?!!??). So she took a deep breath and belted out "Tomorrow..." and then she farted....(yes, you are reading this correctly) and loudly!!! Lucie immediately yelled "Oh no, Martita farted!!!" She plugged her nose with her hand and waved the other one in front of her face. Now to Lucie's defense, historically this is what we all do when Martita passes gas but I looked at her and said "Lucie, sssshhhh" and she replied "Mommy, nobody here speaks English except Freddy". Well, of course Freddy translated it all and I attempted to explain that plugging your nose and waving your hand is pretty universal in all languages....I think the word "fart" is also pretty universal. Well, we had the room hysterically laughing. I had completely given up at this point and enjoyed the moment with everyone else!!!

Our form was revised and the judge explained to me that when you adopt a child from Nicaragua their records are completely destroyed and it is as if she was born into my family. He explained that it was important to continue to tell Gracie about her heritage - to give her a positive image of Nicaragua. He then told me "Congratulations, Grace Martita Grimes is officially your child".... I started to cry and then hugged and kissed the judge (I'm a touchy feel kind of girl) and kept crying and thanking everyone. Three years, almost to the date and she is finally OURS!!!

Our friends, The Tomczak's went in after we finished - their Jonathon is quite the character - he too acted up, as did our girls and when they finished the judge told Jason that Lucie and Jonathon are two peas in a pod (or the Nicaraguan version) and we all laughed and agreed. We all signed the documents and we were beaming!! It was 3:00 by the time we got home and it has been a LONG and WONDERFUL day!!

I have received so many calls from our friends here congratulating us - it brings tears to my eyes that I have found so many dear and precious friends here. God is great!! This has been a rough road...a long one... but I have had so many blessings throughout this process. I also have so many congratulations from our friends and family back home....the support and love I have had through this process is AMAZING!!!

My husband booked our tickets today and we are going home in 9 days!!! Just enough time to finish all our paperwork, pack and say "good bye" - Why does it always seem that time can move so slowly towards a goal and then when it gets close, it flies by? As my husband said to me today "Love, you can now see the finish line" - he's right and I am so ready to cross over!!!