Adoption Finalization Day!!

Today was a BIG day. It's the day we went to court to finalize our adoption. We adopt in Ethiopia and America recognizes it but you have to "re-adopt" once you're back in the States. This means we can finally get them birth certificates, social security cards and passports! Hurrah!
So, we went to the court and the whole thing took about 10 minutes. We were dressed to the nines and waited with the lawyer. The judge came in, we were asked some very general questions and the judge said, "Well, congratulations. You girls will hence forth be known as Turism Tesfay Hanover, Bitsuanit Tesfay Hanover and Tihitina Tesfay Hanover." So fun. Tesfay was their old last name that we wanted to keep. They actually had no idea what it was.

Something fun that happened with all that: we have been spending the last couple of months trying to determine their actual ages. We've been working with their pediatrician for this. We submitted some documents with what we and the doctor agreed with to be their dates and the judge let the evidence through. So, Turi (formerly 9) is acutally 10. Bitsu (formerly 8) is actually 9. And Tihi (formerly 5) is acutally 5. Ha ha. So, we had a birthday party tonight for Turi and Bitsu to age them a year. Bitsu responded with, "Can I stay up later now?" and Tihi said, "You're one year closer to going to knowledge!" (what she thinks college is called).