Who to invite to court when finalizing adoption?

My husband and I pretty much left the invitation open. My dad and brother came and because I was a Superior Court employee, several of my co-workers came, too. Ours took just a few minutes...we waited longer for the certified copies of the paperwork than it took to do the actual finalization. Like ruth74 said, it was sort of anti-climactic.

We just did our invitations yesterday! We do- Grandparents to court, everyone to the cookout. I feel the court process is not very exciting except for you, really. Too many people could detract from your moment. You don't want to host, you want to enjoy. We didn't want all the cousins because some are infants and that could detract from grandparents (or us) being able to be focused. So we have an open invitation to the cookout. Since we finalize on a Friday, it works well for us!! :banana: Congrats!!

Our court was closed except for who we wanted in there (and if there had been anyone to object). In the courtroom there was DH, and me, stepson, and both sets of grandparents. The babies had new 'fancy' dresses to wear and I bought all of the men matching ties to wear with their white shirts and the women all wore similar styles of dresses. I know, I'm a dork. The actual court proceedings were pretty anti-climatic. The judge kept asking my husband if he understood that if he divorced me he would have to pay child support on the kids. I was getting cracked up. We had a party a few weeks later and my parents house. They live out of town with all of my other relatives, so that was a way for them to all meet the babies.

Our attorney actually told us that it's great to invite family members to the finalization because you are asking the judge to use his/her discretion to finalize the adoption. Our attorney said that showing how many people that love the child is a great thing to show the judge, but it is not necessary. We invited grandparents who both live out of state. Only one set was able to attend, but it was great to have them here for that day. Good luck!

We invited all of the grandparents, my sister, my best friend, and three close cousins ( an adult cousin who was adopted as an infant and her parents.) like pps, it was short, but I'm glad I had them there.

I wish I had invited a couple more people...but my attorney was unclear on what was "allowed" I wasnt even sure about bringing LO so I called my mom, when my attorney looked at me without LO like I was crazy. My mom got her dressed up and ran up to the courthouse so we could all be there. Side note so you dont think Im too dumb ;) : When I went to TPR, the criminal hearings were also being done too so I wasn't sure about having LO there surrounded by a bunch of orange jumpsuits! Come to find out that was unusual and the finalization was on an only family court day. It was just me and my mom and LO, and the judge was great, we took pictures and he even made some cute comments. In hindsight, I would have invited a couple of other close family members that could stand with us.Keep in mind that those that don't walk up with you and LO will likely not be able to hear anything....at least that was the case for my court. The judge and attorney had no problem with me and family members standing together while I did the whole "raise your right hand"....you are now the mom! :love:

ToolMan and i, our son Jay and daughter Princess (Sonny and Missy were unable to get off of work), our agency workers and our attorneys. we only have one grandpa left and he was not able to travel due to health issues. honestly, i didn't really notice who all was there. i was just so happy to finally be there it didn't matter to me.

We just had our immediate family, which is all that we would have been able to have. Adoptions in our court are done in private, so we left the courtroom and went to a very small office...we would never have been able to have more than 6 or 7 people at the most!

When we were heading into chambers, the clerk said...sorry, one family at a time! I said they are all with us. I think we had close to 20 people...gps, aunts, uncles, cousins, best friends. We went out to brunch afterwards. One of the best days of my life. Congrats...and bring lots of tissues!

we packed the court :D I checked with the CASA ahead of time to verify this was ok

We had two sets of grandparents, both from out of state. The only local grandparents had already planned a vacation and our court date was bumped to that week after they paid the non-refundable fee. I wish they had been there, but it was they only date available before the end of the year, so we took it! My bff wanted to come and was welcome to, but she couldn't make the trip down. If we lived closer to more family, I would have invited them all! The day we finalized, we were one of 3 finalizations on the docket and all 3 groups were in the courtroom together. We all had the same Atty, but different agencies. We were the only ones without a rep from our agency, but it didn't matter. The Atty introduced us and stated that we were petitioning for adoption, the judge asked her a few questions, us a few questions, and approved our petition. We thought it was funny that he asked if we understood that we would be responsible for our child until he "turns 18 or his graduating class graduates high school". Something about that statement just made us chuckle and we still bring it up from time to time. :) I agree with a pp that we waited longer after the hearing to get the certified copies than the hearing itself lasted. Also, our Atty had us fill out the request for amended birth certificate while at the courthouse.

We finalized our twins' adoption 2 weeks ago. Our hearing was at 8 a.m. We had a brunch type reception immediately following the hearing. I invited close family. I did up an invitation to the hearing with the address to the court house, mentioning the brunch reception immediately following. We had 20 family members attend. The next day we had a bigger party that included friends and extended family. Our situation was a little different, we adopted our little guys out of foster care so our family was emotionally invested in the rollercoaster journey. The adoption hearing was an important step in crossing over from a foster family to a forever family. It was important to me to have my support system present for it.

Smiles, I love your story! :-)

I'm hoping to pack the courtroom :) So many people have traveled on this journey with us the past three years, it's just fitting that they be there to close one chapter and help us celebrate opening the next. There will be caseworkers, transportation drivers, daycare providers, friends, family and anyone else I can think of that was involved in this process. We never would have made it without their support and their love for our kiddos.

I appreciate all your input and personal experience. I know for sure we want to invite the grandparents but still need to figure out the rest. Try to keep you updated. Thanks again.