Evan Ryan Sparks!

It's official!  Evan Ryan Sparks is now a part of our forever family.  We had our final court hearing yesterday and all of our waiting is over.  When I look back on it, I have always known that Evan was chosen by God to be in our family.  There are too many "God" moments for that not to be true.  But even with the signs, there  was a small voice in the back of my mind whispering "what if".  I can now push that away and just enjoy being a mommy.  We got an email one week ago saying that all of the paperwork had gone through and a court date had been set for February 19 at 2:30.  We all did a little happy dance and then informed our family.  With one weeks notice, My Mom and Rick, Jeff parents John and Penny, and my sister and her kids made the trip to Macomb to celebrate little Evan.  Everybody brought sweet gifts for Evan, but what I thought was so touching was that they brought gifts for violet too.  She was very proud to be his big sister forever.  We dressed him up in a 3 piece suit and headed to the courthouse.  Violet remembers climbing all the steps and was memorized with how high we were.  Our family piled into the courtroom.  the courtroom was much smaller than I anticipated.  It was almost like we were all sitting together.  Evan sat on Jeff's lap and loved pounding the table.  He was also fascinated with his shoes and was doing everything he could to chew on them.  They called me to the stand to testify.  They asked me questions like, "do you want to be legally responsible to the child" and "do you believe the child is in a better place with you", and "will you treat the child like he is your biological child".  I was overwhelmed with emotions and out of nowhere started crying.  The judge had to hand me Kleenexes!  The whole time I was speaking, Evan's eyes were locked on mine.  He stopped banging and just strared at me.  It was like I was talking directly to him.  The judge even commented and said, "he is hanging on your every word".  I have never felt more confident in what I was saying than at that moment.  Staring right into his baby blues and swearing to love him for the rest of his life.  I am so glad our journey of adopting Evan is over.  Now we get to move on and live our lives as a family.  To top it all off, Evan decided to Mama for the first time!  His first word on his special day.  I couldn't make that up :)

"Always and forever.  No matter what.  This is where you belong.  Here, with me, my sweet child.  You are mine.  The best gift in the whole wide world.  I will always love you and treasure you and celebrate the day you came, the day that God found us you."   From our favorite book, God Found us You.

Random picture from our trip to the Great Wolf Lodge.  Violet loved story time.

She also loved meeting Violet the Wolf!

Walking up the steps of the courthouse.

Evan and Jeff getting ready for the big moment

The adoption has been approved!

One happy Mamma, hugging her babies tight.

Our love and support

memorized with how high we were

He is officially a Sparks!  I bought this jacket before we even knew about Evan just in case we would ever adopt a boy.  It was one of those have to have moments.  I had the name embroidered to symbolize our special day.

Taking it all in.  Enjoying the moment.

My super sweet girl

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Do You Know How Loved You Are?