Here comes the judge...! 'officially adopted in Massachusetts'...

This morning at 8:30 a.m., we went to the Probate Court of Bristol County (in New Bedford, MA) for our finalization hearing for Isabella's adoption. From what we were told by the attorney, this is not necessary but it has Bella's adoption on record in the state of Massachusetts. This will assist her down the road if she ever needs access to birth certificates; adoption information, etc (if she's applying for marriage licenses and so forth). All four of us went to the courthouse and were called into the Judge's chambers. The Judge was VERY VERY sweet, and you can tell she LOVES this part of her job; seeing a family finalize their adoption. She had a HUGE jar of assorted candy on her desk and immediately asked Zach how many pockets he had. He replied 4; she asked how many does your daddy have; again, answer was 4. Tina and Bella did not have pockets in their outfits, so the Judge said the number 8 just isn't going to do for pieces of candy. She told Zach and Bella to take 10 pieces of candy, and proceeded to have Zach dump the ENTIRE jar on her desk...!! You should hear Bella's squeal of delight as they started taking pieces of candy (bear in mind, they exceeded 10 due to prompting from the Judge....!! they got about 20 pieces, much to their delight...!). The Judge gave them a large manila envelope to stash their goodies in...She then took out an outdated Polaroid camera (film no longer exists for it; she stocked up on as much film at CVS that she could before they ran out), and had us take a picture with her....She was very very sweet...The pic is small, but she gave us two, along with a poem, 'My Love Poem' that a father who was adopting a little boy wrote (it is from the child's point of view), she gave us 2 copies; one for Bella and one for Zach. She said that it is a promise for the family to honor, and had all four of us sign the Poem (Zach signed for Bella).....She said a lot of familes take the picture, and put it with the poem for framing. We will do just that, and I will post the Poem here......Bella, of course, ate her way through the Judges office....NOTHING changes, eat and eat and eat...She ate here way through China and hasn't stopped.....!!!