Two years. Two years ago today, after hounding the courthouse with three calls a day for about a week, we finally heard the news that we had been waiting with baited breath to hear, the judge had signed the papers, everything was legal, finished, and final! Two years ago today my stepson, became my son, and it still gives me chills up and down my arms to think about that phone call with the clerk, whom I had gotten to know quite well from my oh so frequent calls, when she told me that the papers had been finalized and everything was officially official!

We spent the day together, as my husband was off from work, and my adopted stepson was indeed off from school from the snow which had fallen the night before. Most of the snow had melted before noon, allowing my wonderful husband to trek to the store and pick up the things that I wanted to celebrate the day. Since we consider this to be our family birthday, everyone gets a little something, but mom and son get a little bigger something and get more fuss made over them. It is our day, but we are nice enough to share it with the rest of the family!

The ay began with my adopted stepson coming downstairs and handing me something which was folded up neatly in a napkin. “Happy adoption day, he said with a grin, “I made you something…and even wrapped it.” I took the napkin into my hands and opened it up to see one of my most treasured of items, a sandwich. Yes that is right you can win my heart over with a sandwich ladies and gentlemen, it is my most favorite of foods! After thanking and hugging him, I wolfed down my gift faster than I had the time to think, gee I should take a picture of this…sigh my love for sandwiches has foiled me once again!

He was thrilled to receive a cell phone today. While I have always been weary about teens and cell phones, now that he is fifteen, and doing so outstanding in all walks of life, I figured that it was time to let go a little and give him some more freedom, as long as he takes his new electronic leash right along with him! He made a few calls smiling about as wide as humanly possible, and when the phone rang for the first time, he excused himself from video games with dad by saying “excuse me…I have to take this.” Later my husband and I had such a hard laugh over that! He feels so important, so grown up, and it is just so completely wonderful to see!

Even with the little one, who is four, having a melt down at bedtime, the day just could have not gone any better. I can’t blame the little guy for not wanting the day to end. Heck if I wasn’t nodding off as I type this I would probably be trying to convince my husband to stay up and keep the day going as well, it was really that great of a day. There were times when I truly thought that this day, and these feelings would not come. Times when I was so overwhelmed that there just didn’t seem to ever be a light at the end of the tunnel. It simply turned out that the tunnel was a tad bit longer than I had expected it to be. Below is a picture, the first picture that I have shared, of our happy, complete family!