April 10, 2003 Update

A few new things have happened during the past week. Emily started walking on my birthday (April 2). She was able to walk a few steps before then. However, April 2 was the first time she was able to stand, walk awhile, stand a while, then walk again. Previously, she was able to walk a few steps but ended by landing on the floor (either because she tripped or just decided after a certain point to crawl again). She has steadily improved since the 2nd. Now she rarely crawls. In fact, she doesn’t want to be held as much as she used to when she was crawling.

On April 3, Emily went through the adoption process at the county courthouse. The meeting with the judge occurred in his chambers. He went through our adoption paperwork, stated he approved our adoption request, and signed the adoption order. The process took a total of 10 minutes. It ended with a picture of our family with the judge. Unfortunately, Emily got into a crying fit 5 minutes into the process. So I think the picture we got was the judge with a screaming Emily.