Week 25 diary

Well, that's it! We've done it - it's official and there's no turning back!

We've just had our Court Day and it was absolutely fantastic and now we're a real live legal mummy and daddy at last!

The day actually started the night before, with Tim and I decorating the dining room with streamers and balloons and posters we'd printed with "Happy Adoption Day" all over them. It looked really great!

We set out the table for breakfast and put some cards and presents in front of where Jamie sits. The following morning I went to wake Jamie up and acted just as normal, but said that he could have a pyjama breakfast this morning (just to save him spilling cereal all down his new outfit - of course, the downside to this is that he now wants pyjama breakfasts every day!)

Anyway, I digress. Luckily Tim was hiding in the dining room with the video camera to capture Jamie's face. Jamie and I came downstairs and I just kept saying to him "I wonder where Daddy's gone? Is he hiding?" and Jamie was looking everywhere except in the dining room, the door to which was shut. Eventually, he decided to try the dining room and ran into the room and just said "Wow"!

He then ran back to me and I picked him up in my arms and he said "Mummy, is it my birthday?". Cue lump in throat! I said to him "Don't you remember - it's your Adoption Day today!" He was so excited - we sat and ate breakfast and Jamie opened his cards and presents which he thought was great.

After a quick change, we were out of the house and off to the local City to the court. We met his social worker and our sets of parents outside of the court, and Tim's sister had even driven up from the South to come for the day.

We waited in the reception area to be called, and the Adoption Officer mentioned to us that, disappointingly, we almost certainly wouldn't be able to get into a court for photographs that day because one of the court rooms was being renovated.

This disappointment was short-lived, however, when five minutes later she came out again to say that she had managed to get us into the Criminal Court so we were all really quite excited. We went into the Judge's chambers to meet him and had an informal chat first - he was very interested in my varied career history which Tim found absolutely hilarious.

Jamie was distracted by a pile of toys in the corner and kept whispering "Mummy, can I play with the toys please?" so off he went and left us adults to the important stuff. It didn't take long really, just around 20 minutes. The judge signed the official papers and then a special certificate which he gave to us for Jamie. We had photographs in the chambers, and then went up to the Criminal Court for yet more photos.

Jamie's social worker very kindly videoed the proceedings for us so we have lots of photos and video to remember the day by. Of course, you will recall that we'd been told Jamie would be offered the wig to wear, and hadn't been all that enthusiastic at the prospect. Well, I think we were duped! Half-way through the photo taking, the judge bought out a really long wig for Tim and then took his own wig off his head and popped it on me. Well, this caused mass hysteria amongst our family and Jamie's social worker is quite clearly heard commenting on the video "Deputy Dawg comes to mind" at the sight of Tim in his wig.

All too soon it was over and we were sitting in the café in the Court having a quick cuppa. Jamie took it all in his stride, and to be honest, I think he wondered what all the fuss was about even though we'd told him about the day and what it meant! Shortly after that, Jamie's social worker left us and quite poignantly said to Jamie "Well, bye bye.... It's been lovely knowing you". It kind of made it feel very final for us.

Afterwards we had a great meal over at the local Brewsters (Jamie's choice) and then went out again and gave Jamie free run of the local Bear Factory to choose exactly what he liked. He didn't go too mad luckily, but the nice thing about it was that his chosen bear (which is actually a hippo) has a birth certificate which has the adoption day on it.

Click here for page two of the diary