It happened.  We hit the finish line today.  With just hours left in the year 2012, we appeared before a judge and she declared our boys' adoption to be "finalized".  We walked into the same court room we've been in twice before, to finalize each of our daughters' adoptions, and we sat with our boys on our laps.  The judge asked us questions that seemed so hard to answer because our hearts and minds were swimming in a flood of love/relief/love/relief  I kept tripping over my syllables and could hardly remember my own name...I wondered if a woman in labor would be able to answer these types of questions right in the middle of a contraction: what's your address, state the location and date of your wedding, spell your child's name, do you solemnly swear that you will do everything in your power to take full responsibility to provide every opportunity for education and physical and mental well being for this child, do you accept any known and not yet known physical or psychological disabilities this child may encounter, do you believe this adoption is in the best interest of this child...
My voice was shaky, and it cracked when I said "y-y-yes" into the recording device/microphone.  Ruby was sitting next to me, and she grabbed my hand.  I looked down at her encouraging face and the tears pooling in my eyes spilled onto my cheek.  Joseph, sitting perfectly quiet on my lap, turned around and said "no cry Momma."
And then somewhere in there it was over: the judge declared us the legal parents of the boys we've considered to be our sons since we first learned of them.
You know, yesterday I told my mom "Oh, this court appearance is no big deal, it's just a formality".  I believe that.  But it's also kinda like the wedding versus the marriage: it's really more about the life-long marriage, not the event of the wedding day...but it's nice to have that stake-in-the-ground moment to look back on and say on this day I pledged before God and man to give myself to you forever
And after going out for pizza with our extended family, and then stopping at a fun dessert place after that, we came home and I walked straight to my bedroom to put on my pajamas =-)  I was exhausted.
I mean heck, I was in (emotional) labor and answering questions all at the same time!