FAMILY DAY !!!!

This past Thursday, just two short days ago, was the Bates Family Day. The OFFICIAL ADOPTION OF LITTLE MISS!!!!! Yeah... woo woooo... Awesome! We got certified in July, found out about Little Miss in September, and she came to live with us October 2nd. So, it seems like forever that we have been waiting for finalization, but really its only been 5 long and glorious and stressful months. Surprisingly short in adoption time lines. 13 months from the day we took our first certification class to the day Little Miss was officially OURS. Here is how Family Day went:

Our day started out much the same as any other weekend might have. We all got up, took turns in the shower, ate some cereal, and got ready to leave. There was palpable excitement in the air. Little Miss kept asking me if the Judge would like this hair clip or that one. Would the Judge like this pair of shoes or that one? I gave her a new dress that we had been saving for a special occasion. She wanted her long curly hair down, but that is always just a hassle. So we compromised with the sides braided to the back. Auntie K calls it the Princess Braid. We were all ready on time and in the car. Called Auntie K to make sure she was on her way, then turned around to get the camera we forgot, then called Papa to tell him to come... We forgot to tell Papa that our Judge was at the courthouse near his house, not downtown. I felt HORRIBLE. But Papa went with the flow, and with 20 minutes until our hearing.. jumped in his car and came to the courthouse... scruffy and all!

We walked into the wrong building, called Little Miss's caseworker in frantic mode, found out we were just around the corner from where we should have been. Back in the car, around the corner, through security... and Just in time. We said hello to our caseworker, Hailey's caseworker, and our lawyer. Auntie K was a few minutes late, so we shuffled our feet walking into the courtroom. She came speed walking around the corner with Racer and Princess in tow, just in time!

We sat at the tables, with our family behind us, and told God and Country that we would like to keep Little Miss forever. I had to answer a bunch of questions, Daddy answered that his answers were the same, then the Judge said a little sch peel and Granted our request for Adoption! Everyone was all smiles.. except Little Miss. She was so nervous and embarrassed at all the attention that she jumped into Daddy's arms and wouldn't look at any of the cameras. The poor Judge had perma grin for like 8 minutes straight while we tried to coax Little Miss to turn toward everyone.

We went outside, took pictures and pictures and pictures. Here are a lot of them...





Then Papa went to get ready for work. We hugged him and loved him and thanked him for coming on ubber short notice and apologized again for the screw up. Then all the Bates and the Powers (minus the working Uncle R) went to a celebratory breakfast at the very fancy and exclusive hole in the wall diner Giant Hamburger. No, don't turn up your nose. If you have never been, then you can not imagine the Yummi-ness that comes from this small family owned diner. It just so happened that our Family Day, that was scheduled 6 months ago, fell on another important day. It was Racer's 8Th birthday. He was very gracious and allowed us to co-celebrate our Family Day on his Birthday. He ate his pancakes like a wild animal, we played hilarious games with floating napkins, then we all went back to our house to change for our next adventure.
Auntie K and family are members at the Zoo. To say they go often does not do them justice, but it is always a fun family time to walk, stroller, and skip through the Zoo. Auntie K is our own personal tour guide, and twice this trip, gave us fun little facts just moments before the Train Tour guy said the exact same thing. She should work part time giving people tours. There were so so SOOOOO many people at the zoo, that Daddy let us all out and went on his parking adventure that lasted 35 minutes. We realized that not only were people in town for Spring Training, but that it was Spring Break! The zoo was like Disneyland. People were everywhere.
We rented our strollers, so the kids could take breaks, and went out on our adventure. We walked the whole zoo. We saw the bears right up close, on the backside of the enclosure. We watched the baby orangutan. She is so cute and funny every time we go.
Little Miss, Racer, and Princess took turns pushing each other in the strollers. All in all... we were at the zoo for a little over 4 hours.. a record for us! It was also the most beautiful 85 degree day. You could not have scripted better weather.
We all went home to relax and recoup from our outdoor adventure. At 6:30pm, the whole gang came over to our house. Uncle M, Auntie Kari, Papa, Mimi, Uncle R, Auntie K, Racer and Princess all came. We ate pizza and wings, had Birthday Brownies, and had a fun time. Uncle M and I challenged Racer and Daddy to a Mario Kart duel. We raced something like 8 races. During one, Racer was in the lead but Daddy was right on his heels. The whole family was cheering and laughing and giving encouragement... Watch Out... Go Left.. Here he comes... OOOHHHHh.... and Racer pulled out his victory with only a hair splitting him with his uncle. When he crossed the finish line, he fell to his knees with a victorious Scream! We all laughed at his excitement for several minutes before we could start the next race! All in all, Uncle M and I creamed the red team of Racer and Daddy... and I would like to say that it was entirely due to the amazing skills and tricks and hands of... Uncle M. I am not so consistent when it comes to Mario Kart... but boy did we all have fun. Little Miss and Princess played Memory in her room for close to 2 hours straight. At 9:30pm everyone went home.

I put Little Miss to bed. She was exhausted and excited and unsure how to calm down. We read from our bedtime story book and when she laid down, we said our prayers. Little Miss thanked Jesus for her room, her toys, and for letting her be Little Miss Bates. It was so cute.

What a beautiful and perfect Family Day. It wouldn't have been better. Ok, maybe if we had stopped to have a Cherry Slurpee...