Although Aiden came home with us on March 5th of this year, his guardian was still Holt Korea. And even though he lived with us the last, almost, 9 months, he still wasn't ours. During that time, our home study agency came and made home visits to see how we were doing. After 6 months, they approved us to be his family. Next, we contacted an adoption attorney, she wrote up our petition to adopt, our social worker chimed in to give the agency's approval, filed it with the Robertson County court clerk and BAM, we had a court date to finalize on December 12th, 2011. Really, it wasn't that easy or quick. But another "wait" is over and now Yeong-min Gim is officially Aiden Lee Lemmons forever!
Mike took half a day off of work, Taylor missed most of her school day, but it was awesome. My mom and dad were there along with Mike's mom and dad. We all met up out front of this building, the Robertson County court house.
The center of the building was constructed in 1879. The clock tower and wings on either side were added in 1930. The exterior of the building went through renovations in 2006. Main Street is also old highway U.S. 41 and old U.S. 431 and a cross street in TN49.
Since we were attending circuit court, we went to the old court house, as I call it. The county recently built a new criminal court building that houses the jail, criminal court, etc. Glad we were able to go to the "old" one, pretty awesome building! Okay, so here are some pics of us inside, waiting on jury selection to finish upstairs.
Once we were inside, we ended up sitting there another 20 minutes waiting on the judge to come in. The court room was so quiet, and then there was Aiden!
Needless to say, he had everyone in there smiling and laughing! The judge finally came in and got down to business. He took care of some business first then called us up. He first said that would be the most rewarding thing all day he'd get done. After our attorney gave her little spill on us and Aiden, the judge asked Taylor if she wanted Aiden to be her little brother. She said yes, so the judge said he would grant our adoption, only on her approval! lol Kind of funny, Taylor smiled really big, so cute! He signed our petition and came down to get a picture with all of us. He shook Mike and my hand and said congratulations and what a wonderful thing we were doing. The judge saw that both sets of grandparents were there and they should all come and get in the pictures too! So here we are!
By the third picture, Aiden was ready to RUN, been couped up and held all morning. And then it was done. We went downstairs, talked with our attorney some more on a few details and was finished! We are Aiden's forever family now!
After coming home and posting some finalization pictures on Facebook, I came across this post from a friend from church. What an awesome person, he really is! Thanks Kenny, this really meant a lot to me. :)
"Some children are born into the home that God intended. Others have to find their homes by the grace of God. Today little Aiden Lemmons whose life started in a distant land officially found his new home in Cross Plains with a family that prayed for him even before they knew him. Welcome home Aiden!"
Although Aiden's given name officially changed, his heritage will always be the same! Love my baby boy, my family, and my life. He has changed our home forever, and it will never be the same! Thank goodness for Aiden! He has shown me the way .....
