Amanda Chadwick from the Children’s Home Society invited me to the courthouse to sketch an adoption proceeding. When we entered the building we had to get past security. My portable artists stool raised a red flag and the guards got into a discussion as to how lethal a weapon it might be. Amanda’s bag needed a second search and a curling iron was found which was equally lethal. The guards were considering allowing the chair, but to cut the red tape, Amanda and I went back out to the parking lot to get rid of the contraband. When it was discovered that I planned to sketch, guards and lawyers got involved in letting me know how short the proceeding would be and how unlikely it would be that I would get a sketch. A lawyer introduced Amanda and I to the Joma family who would be adopting two children this day. The baby girl was only three days old when the family first began to care for her. The little boy, a toddler, was strutting around the courthouse like he was a lawyer himself. He was dressed in a very corporate looking suit. At one point he walked over and hugged his little sister.
The time spent in the courtroom was indeed brief. The judge quickly announced the completion of all the needed paper work and the family pledged that they loved the children and would raise them in a caring household. I glanced over at Amanda when it was over and she had gotten quite choked up. Even though she had worked for the Children’s Home Society for sometime, this was the first time she had witnessed an adoption firsthand.
