Readoption

Today, we went to one of the county courthouses (this one specializes in family law) in Sacramento for Megan’s (re)adoption hearing. Even though the adoption that occurred in China is legally accepted by California and the U.S. government, it is recommended that foreign-born adopted children be formally adopted in the United States too (that’s why people call it a readoption even though in the eyes of the court it’s simply just an adoption). We had a 8:30 AM appointment in courtroom 124 at the courthouse. There was one other adopting family with the same appointment time in the same courtroom. Each family was called into the judge’s chambers seperately. We met with the judge who went over our paperwork. He stated that based on the paperwork he was approving the adoption. We were then led back to the courtroom. About fifteen minutes later, a clerk gave us certified documents shows the court’s approval of the adoption and told us the State of California would be mailing us a State of California birth certificate with Megan’s name on it.

One of the benefits of the readoption is that there will be an official State of California birth certificate for Megan. If, in the future, Megan ever needs to get her birth certificate, she simply has to send a form to the State of California as opposed to fly back to China and try to obtain one from a Chinese provincial government office.

Pictures of the day can be found here