Thursday, March 20, 2008

Nicole's Adoption Hearing

Here's a photo that Dorine took on Tuesday, March 18, at the hearing in Bernalillo County Children's Court to rule on our son-in-law Chris F______'s petition to adopt our granddaughter Nicole. Nicole's biological father first contested the adoption, leading to a lot of otherwise-unnecessary expense; however, at some point he experienced a change of heart and elected to relinquish his parental rights. Therefore, what was originally scheduled to be an evidentiary hearing turned into an informal gathering affording the judge an opportunity to sign off on the adoption, much to our great relief and delight. Now Nicole is officially a F______ and their family is complete, barring one more step: Nicole's being sealed to Kristy and Chris in the temple. (Front, L-R: Alexis, Zach, Nicole, Chris, and Chris's attorney Judith Holbrook-Farrell; Back, L-R: Heidi and Gloria Finnemore.)