As for me, I know of nothing else but miracles. - Walt Whitman

Friday, April 27, 2012

It's Official!

Yesterday, we went to the court house.....

.....and met with our attorney in Judge DeMuth's chambers so that these two.....

.....could officially become Jalen Opiyew and Jordan Uchan, instead of Opiyew Christopher and Uchan Christopher!



One more step in the paperwork process of "legalizing" the boys is complete! Now, all we need to do is wait for their new Ohio birth certificates with their new names, and then we can file for social security numbers and get them new passports. What an amazing journey this has been! God has blessed us far beyond what we could have ever imagined, and we are thrilled that He has brought Jalen and Jordan into our hearts and home.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Florida!

Chris had business meetings in Orlando all of last week, so Adrian, Jalen, Jordan and I went along. We had a wonderful week in the sunny south! Here are a few, okay - a ton, of photos from our trip:

We stayed at the beautiful Renaissance Hotel at Sea World:






 The hotel had a kids' water park area, and the boys loved being in the water!





Sea World:

After we watched the Shamu show, the twins kept referring to the whale as "Shampoo." Then, every time we passed a lake or river, they wondered if Shampoo was in there.


 The twins got to experience the ocean and beach for the first time, and they enjoyed every minute of it!







Downtown Disney:



Another day at Sea World:


 We spent our last day at the Magic Kingdom:



























We met many people on our trip who seemed interested in our adoption story, and one couple from Boston had fun playing with the boys as we stood in the Splash Mountain line at Disney World. The lady asked Jalen if he wanted to come home with her, and he seemed fine with it until he realized he probably wouldn't see us very often. Then, as we waited in line for another attraction, a lady behind us was overcome with emotion and ran up to the boys, smiling and laughing and hugging and kissing them all over! The twins weren't sure what was up, but then the woman's husband explained to us that they were from Brazil and his wife didn't know any English. She was thrilled to see the boys with us, though, and wanted us to know that she thought they were beautiful! She was so excited that we had adopted them, and kept laughing and talking about them. It was a rather interesting experience.

We had a wonderful vacation, and hope everyone out there has a great day!