FOREVER OURS!
June 28th was a pretty special day for us.... although Brooklynn was born December 28th and we brought her home to live with us on Decebmer 30th - we still had to wait 6 months for the state of Texas to declare her legally ours. Basically this is done in Brooklynns best interest and to make sure that she will be in the best hands. We didn't realize when we started this process what an important day our court day would be until we got Brooklynn home. We realized when we saw her how much we loved her and how much she was meant for us, we couldn't imagine her ever being taken from us. We have been counting down the days to our finalization day to KNOW that she would forever be ours - just like any baby born to any of you reading this. We knew the court date would be sometime after she was 6 months - we were lucky enough that the court had open time available on her 6 month birthday to fit our case in!! So, June 28th, 2012 - Brooklynn Faith Blackwell became officially ours forever and ever.
We arrived June 28th with about 30 friends and family there to support us at court!! We were so grateful they came! Court was in Wichita Falls (2 and 1/2 hours from home) so it was so nice of our family and friends to take off the day and be there for us and especially Brooklynn on this very special day.
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| Mommy on the stand - I did a horrible job - I really wanted to say these great things but all I did was cry LOL and as my sister reminded me I have an ugly cry hahaha anyways... I looked like a mess up there but they were tears of happiness!!! |
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| Daddy taking the stand - he did a much better job than me when they asked him questions. I was crying watching him tell the judge and lawyers what she meant to our family, it was precious. |
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| I love this picture cause she is so happy!!! My little cupcake! Someone said she looked like a cupcake in that dress and I think I like that nickname :) |
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| Happy baby girl with daddy and her aunts! |
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| My Aunt caught a picture of everyone in court with us! Our lawyer was shocked there were so many people that made the trip with us LOL - I said oh you don't even know how excited they all were to come with us! I just realized there are no pics of my Aunt Tammy and Nancy with B cause they are always the one taking the pics!!! Thank you Aunt Tammy and Aunt Nancy for always capturing the sweetest pics!!!!! |
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| Us with our lawyer Mary and the director at Inheritance Adoptions, Leslie. These ladies played such a great role in Brookylnn being placed with us, we are forever grateful!! |
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| Ill never forget this day and this beautiful "Cupcake" of ours.......
Now its time to celebrate!!! After the court hearing we all loaded up in our cars and headed for home where there were about 100 or so people ready to celebrate with us!!! We asked people who were pretty close to us (literally everyone who was there are people we talk to on a weekly basis) to join us for supper at Ojedas Restaurant to celebrate this special day for Brooklynn!!! We could have invited the whole town but tried to keep it somewhat small (which was still pretty big) .... It was so nice that many people wanted to be there with us to celebrate. We didn't get to visit much and neither of us really ate ha! but it was beautiful seeing so many people and knowing one day I can tell my sweet girl that all those people were there to celebrate HER being in our lives!!! Here are some pics from the special night (warning there are a lot - but I want this blog to be a journal for B to look back on one day and see all of this!)
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| Nana B (Justins mama), Brooklynn and Daddy - three generations of Blackwells!! My husband loves his girls so much - his mama, his baby, his dog and me too :) |
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| Bobby and Lisa -dear friends of our family for a LONG time! |
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| Ma and her great grandson - my Ty! She is a wonderful grandma and great Ma and loves all of her babies! |
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| My brother in law and one of my oldest friends, Erik and my Uncle Brian - one of the best men ever!! Love these two! |
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| my sister and our dad and our papa - two very special men in our world! I love these three people SO much! |
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| My sweet cousins Justin and Angela -wish his eyes weren't shut! Thank yall for coming SO much!!! |
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| The Moores - Tom and Cyndi have become dear friends to us - they love our girl like she were their own niece - she loves her Aunt Cyndi and Uncle Tom So much!! |
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| Couldn't ask for a better football boss for my husband- love this man and his wife - they are such special friends to us and we are thankful they call Midlo home! |
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| My mama and my uncle!! Love these two so much! |
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| I hope my sisters and I are as close as these two when we are older - I love my Aunt Bobbi and my mom and how much fun they have together! |
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| Lainey and Keeley special girls having a good time at the celebration |
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| Abby and Julia always have fun together! |
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| Special kiddos in our world - thank you Hunter, Tawni and Miranda for being there and Banyon of course too! |
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| Brookie, Hannah and Alyssa - we love these girls and their support for us and B |
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| The Johns! New friends of ours - such a sweet family - love them already - wish Jasons eyes were open :) |
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| My uncles babysitting the stroller - they had to find their own booth it was too crowded where we were for them :) |
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| The Rolands! We went to school with Gage and now their family has become dear special friends of ours!!! |
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| Kim, Scott, Cooper and Reese - our neighbors and friends - so glad B has Reese to grow up with!!!! |
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| Two of our best friends!! Jimmy and Michelle mean SO much to us! We love them! |
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| Kathryne, Chad and Maycee - beautiful friends and co workers - we love these three sweet faces! |
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| The Rubys (minus Jayden)! Aunt Wendy, Uncle Ryan and nephew Hudson - so glad they joined us for supper! We love this family very much! |
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| Coach Clanton coached my dad in football!! A LONGGG time ago :) |
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| We love Ronnie Jo Clanton! (that would be Dad doing bunny ears - somethings never change!) |
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| He also coached all my uncles!! |
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| The Ryes - two of our best friends who also happen to be neighbors! They love B like they do their own just as we love their babies! |
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| My mom in law and dad in law - LOVE them and their love for our girl |
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| B getting love from some amazing coaches!!! Coach Hydes holding B is not only our friend but a great boss to my husband - he is our head baseball coach, Coach Clanton in the middle coached my dad in football, taught me in high school and now works with Justin! We love these men!! |
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| Abby and Ky Harrington - friends since they were babies!! Aren't they an adorable couple :) ? |
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| Ty and Zander Harrington - buddies and two of the cutest boys I have ever seen!!!! |
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| My Dad and Stepmom - B's "swiming" papaw and Na - they were so sweet to take off the whole day from work and spend this day with us! We love them BOTH a LOT! |
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| Baby sister!!! Aunt Yvonne - she spent the whole day with us! We both love her! |
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| Miranda and I have been friends since we were 15 - both of us adore her! Thank You Miranda and Scott for being there! |
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| Three of the sweetest boys - coaches kids - Haydon, Camden and Cade |
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| My mema and Papa spent the WHOLE day with us - made the long drive and celebrated with us! I don't know what I would do without Mema and Papa! |
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| Julia and Zac were there - our old neighbors and they have been good friends for about 5 years now - Zac and Justin used to coach together and these two know how badly we wanted a baby of our own. Now they are expecting their own little baby boy - B can't wait to meet him!! |
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| The best head baseball coach I could ever ask for my husband to work under! We love this man and his family!! A great example to us of a loving dad and coach!! |
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| We love the Oakleys!! These sweet friends no longer coach at Midlo but I love that we can stay close to them!!! They are precious! |
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| Kathy and Jay Roberts.... Truly two of the sweetest people ever - such a wonderful example of a loving marriage and loving parents! They wrote a recomendation letter 2 years ago when we started the whole adoption process, they are dear and special lifelong friends to us!!! Justin coached their boys and their children are very dear to us! |
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| The Houchins (minus Luke) - we have been friends with these sweet people FOREVER - love them both! They are loving, sweet friends and so much FUN too! We love our date nights with the Houchins and we are so thankful for them in our world! |
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| Chris and Tracy King, just met them two years ago but feels like we have known them forever... sweet friends and neighbors who know what we have gone through in our adoption process all too well. |
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| John and Ashley Broom... sweet friends who coach with Justin, so grateful for their friendship!! |
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| The Boyds' - they used to coach with Justin and they have stayed special friends! They have great hearts and I love the love they have for their boys!!! |
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| Aunt Nancy carrying a VERY tired Brookie around!! Poor baby was getting sleepy from a LONG day! Aunt Nancy loves loving on her! |
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| Ma and Vern! My Ma is SO special in our world.... I am SO GRATEFUL B has the opportunity to know so many great grandparents!! |
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| Connor, Paige and Faithy - three of Justins' kids he taught... they are all now in college and we still stay close to them - we LOVE these kids! B was named after the sweet girl on the right, Brooklynn Faith for Miss Sweet Faith! |
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| Two longtime dear friends of our family!! Wendy and Lee - they are SO supportive and thoughtful and now expecting their own little one in a few more months!! Thrilled for them! |
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| Pa-paw and Ty - these two remind me SO much of each other!! Love these men in my world! |
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| My Aunt Mary, Uncle Greg and Jessica.... they are always fun and always there for us!! |
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| My mom and my sister- they are SO pretty!! I LOVE them DEARLY |
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| A few of the sweetest girls ever!! These beautiful girls all have special places in our hearts and the way they love Brooklynn is so special to us!!! |
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| My cousins!! Bailey and Brent! He loves his little sister in law! They always make me laugh so much and these two truly have such wonderful hearts!!! |
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| The B girls! My Aunt Bobbi, and her girls Brittany, Brylee and Blakely... I love them so much! and Brookie loves wearing her cousins cute hand me downs!!! |
This whole day was just wonderful - what a special way to celebrate the most important thing in our world.... our ittle girl! God is SO good! He blessed us with this baby girl and we thank Him for the family and friends he gave us to celebrate with!! Thank you to everyone we love that was there to celebrate on this special night.... my Aunt captured some amazing pictures of some people we love so much and I can't wait for Brookie to get older and be able to see how many people were there to celebrate HER big day!! I think there were just a few people I don't have pictures of that were there... I love that this blog is a scrapbook of sorts for B to be able to look at years and years from now with her own kids and share HER amazing story!!
