It's Official!

Little Kofi is mine.

Well, as mine as possible at this stage of the game.  I am now his official adoptive father: Emily has signed an irrevocable relinquishment of baby Kofi to the adoption agency who then gave him to me. It all seemed so easy. We still need to wait 30 days to officially terminate her parental rights and the father's rights, but he has been so absent that the agency has no doubt about this happening.

It was all rather emotional, as you can imagine. Emily asked Marsha to be the witness (as testimony to the warmth that Marsha exudes and the ease with which she connected with Emily) for the relinquishment signing. Marsha says Emily was sobbing afterwards, but quickly pulled herself together. Emily and I then greeted each other, hugged tightly, cried some more and then Emily and I then left the hospital together, hugged goodbye, and Marsha and I loaded Kofi into the car (thank you, Terri, for the car seat!) and drove off into my incredible future.

Marsha and I took him out for a celebratory Tex-Mex lunch (our hotel room wasn't quite ready). He got a lot of attention from the wait staff and he took 2oz of formula lickety-split and then fell asleep while we chowed down our enchiladas and salad.

Now we're warmly ensconced in our efficiency apartment which is just great. We're listening to my iPod play Messiah (you know, "For unto us a child is born...") and Kofi is napping like the perfect angel he is.