A Beautiful Day...

My alarm went off at 5 o'clock and the wind was howling in the dark outside. Rain pelted the rooftop as I made my coffee, strangely awake and alert at this early hour. Admittedly, I was nervous. A year of joy and pain, of effort and triumph had built a bridge to this day. Today was the day of my son's adoption finalization hearing.

Daylight crept through the clouds as I sat alone for just a while - surrounded by clothing laid out upon the couch, our Sunday best, freshly ironed the night before. It was time to wake the kids up, get us all ready to make a two hour journey from our rural home to the county courthouse. I stood at his door, paused for a moment to watch the child that had been entrusted to me by both God and North Carolina, and smiled at his sweet sleeping face, remembering once more just how blessed I've been to have him for the past seven months. And then I woke the sleepyhead from his dreams, explaining that, no, he could not put his "court clothes" on just yet. That the chores must be done first so that they'd still be clean by the time we left.

A quarter after seven, the six of us are trekking from the house carrying our essential things and praying that the dog doesn't decide to jump up on any of us before we get to the car. At eight o'clock, we are driving through a rain-soaked canyon that some would believe lies directly on the edge of heaven. My son is glancing out the window and singing something under his breath, the girls are asleep once more. My husband is explaining to me again that this is just a formality, that any problems large enough to delay finalization would have been made known before this day. And I am hoping he is right.

A quarter after nine, we are at the courthouse, now sheltered within our county's new Justice Center Complex. The security is heavy here, as it is heavy in all courthouses in this day and age. We walk through the metal detector and begin to search for the appropriate court room. But a uniformed officer tells us to wait a minute, and produces from his office a piece of Halloween candy for each of the kids and asks them where their costumes are. "These are our costumes," My oldest daughter says. "We're dressed up as a family this Halloween."

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