How to celebrate finalization?

Cool! Between my agency & my atty, I'll be lucky to finalize before she has been home a year:grr: :grr: Anyway, I was thinking along the same lines, & was wondering what sort of celebration we should do.

How funny this question came up today! As of 10am today - Ellis is "officially" our son!! The court procedure was short and we were allowed to take photos of the entire process. Afterward, we all took a picture with the judge. My mother made cupcakes with USA flags on them and got red, white and blue balloons (which Ellis has chased all over the house!). We just had a little party with family but it was a lot of fun on a very special day!!!!:clap:

We just finalized on Thursday :clap: ! We didn't do anything beside the court house thing. We just had a big party for his birthday and dh had to go in Friday for a biopsy. We will probably do something for it on the anniversary date though, but gosh I don't know what. It is so close to his birthday! It's a thinker...

Congratulations Sherry & Joy! How coincidental that you both finalized so close to each other. I guess I'm a planner and was raised with everything being a big celebratory event. But I must say that expenses have gone through the roof since I came off maternity leave - Tutor Time is wonderful but so expensive. We've been cutting back a lot. I wanted to splurge and take about 10 of us out to dinner that night but my responsible DH suggested a BBQ. My thought initially was Ugh, more work for me! LOL But we decided to table the decision for now. I guess how you celebrate isn't as important as what you are celebrating. It's so HUGE! I'm so excited for the day. Can't wait! BTW, since I haven't updated, Luke is 10 mos now. He's clapping, waving, babbling and crawling like a speed demon (however still not on all 4's). He's such a happy, peaceful baby - sleeps from 8pm-6am generally without getting up. I know how lucky I am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just feel SOOOOOOOOOO busy! Working FT and keeping everything organized is such hard work. It truly never ends. But it's ALL good, truly. Thanks for the replys! :)Jackie

Sherry...without being nosy, is dh ok?

I think that you can celebrate the way you want to. We don't celebrate the finalization/adoption day. In my family, the arrival day is more important. We kept the actual day very simple (with just the grandparents) and then lunch out. Mo

Ryan's finalization ceremony was 5 minutes long. Ryan ran around the court room while we were swearing to our signatures and signing away. Our ceremony was at 8:45 in the morning this past December. My parents were present taking still pictures as well as video. We got pictures with the judge and our lawyer afterwards. We went to our house afterwards. We went out to eat for lunch to celebrate. Ryan got gifts from my parents. I sent off thank yous to the judge, lawyer, the court clerk, and the lawyer's assistant with a picture from the finalization. We celebrated Ryan's first arrival day anniversary at home this year since we couldn't go out with Katie since she just arrived 2 weeks earlier. We want to celebrate the kids arrival days by going out to eat at a local restaurant that serves Korean food. I also honored his foster family by lighting a candle this year. I ended up crying on his arrival day while holding his sister (she was with the same foster family). I can't begin to imagine how tough it must be for them as well as the birthmom. And I agree with Mo, celebrate the way that you want to. With me, I like traditions and keeping things simple as well. Jen

The day before finalization, we had our daughter dedicated at church. After church we had a celebration for both her dedication and the finalization that happened the next day. We had about 100 people over for a really nice meal. Decorations were red, white and blue, both US and Korean flags. I displayed books about Korea, children's books, pictures of Ellayna, her hanbok. The day of finalization we had a US flag flown over the capital building in Washington. Then the flag was sent to us with a certificate stating the occassion. This is all done through your congressman. It cost $17, but I heard some congressman pay for the flag themselves. Hope this sparks some ideas. :) Have fun! The day is special no matter what you do!