It's Official: Tuck & Jones Become Part of the Sharples-Aufranc Family!

There is no turning back - today was Giving & Receiving Ceremony Day at the Hanoi Ministry of Justice! After 3.5 months since we arrived, 8.5 months since we got matched, and over 3 years since we embarked on this journey, Tucker Dang Van Thang Sharples & Jones Dang Van Chien Sharples are now officially ours.

The ceremony was kind of like getting married at the County Courthouse: very proper and official, pretty much business, and relatively short. My friend Kathy Ramsey who lives in Hanoi Towers came along for moral support and be the cameraman. Also present was Thang, the twins' part-time nanny for the past 3.5 months, Loan who is with our agency, and a representative from the Dong Anh Orphanage. The Director of the Orphanage also came, but for some reason did not come to the actual ceremony. A very official woman from the Ministry of Justice conducted the procedings, in Vietnamese, and we had English and French translators (there was another couple with a baby from France joining in the G&R).

Under the watchful eye of Ho Chi Minh's golden bust in the corner of the room, I signed lots of papers, a huge log book with mug shots of the twins pasted in taken probably a year or so ago, stood up to receive the hand-off from the official, who at the end made it a point to say "they are now officially yours!"

Kind of hard to describe the feelings... it might be a little like the day you find out your baby can come out of the ICU after a premature birth perhaps. They became ours in all of our hearts a while ago, but there has been a big conditional hanging over us for so long. It's a relief, only to be bested by the visas to enter the United States in hand, which hopefully will be at the end of the week if all goes according to plan...

Lisa, Wescott, Yve & Otto - Tuck, Jones and I really missed you today, but we have a video you can see, and more importantly, we'll be coming home very soon!!

Here are some pics of the day:

Waiting for the Ceremony to begin (L to R: representative from Dong Anh, Cliff, Tuck, Jones, Thang)

Ministry of Justice Official with The Boys right after the ceremony

Tuck, Thang, Kathy and Jones outside Minitry of Justice


Jones outside Ministry of Justice: "Yeah, I'm a Sharples!"


Tuck outside the Ministry of Justice: "Wait, I'm a what?!"


Twins Tag Team for the past month: "Thang, I would NOT have survived without you! From the bottom of my heart, thank you."


The Gang: from L-R: Random Woman, Random Woman's Baby (they just got into the picture), Loan from PLAN, Thang, Tuck, Mr. Minh (Orphanage Director), Kathy, Jones, Orphanage Representative