Adoption Update

Some people have asked me what the status is for our adoption so I thought I would fill you in. Some of you probably think there is no status update because she is here with us so I thought I would clarify that too!

When we left the hospital with Kaleigh, her birth mother signed over her rights but the birth father did not because he was not around. Because the birth father wasn't around, our attorney's had to try to find him and give him every opportunity to claim her as his. They didn't find him and he never showed up. So then after about 30 days, our case went before the court and both the birth mother and father's parental rights were terminated meaning they could never come back and try to get her. That was a sigh of relief for us. Not on M's part (the birth mother) because we have a great relationship with her, but it made us nervous about him. We had no reason to think he would show up, but you just never know.

In the meantime, we were having our post-placement visits. Basically our home study agency comes to our house to make sure we are adjusting well and that Kaleigh is adjusting well. We had one in February and one in March. They both went great! In the March home study our social worker had to recommend/not recommend that our adoption be finalized (which means she's ours forever). She  saw that things are going well and recommended that our adoption be finalized.

So both of those things had to happen-parental rights terminated and us passing our home studies-before we could finalize. There also has to be a 90 day waiting period. So as of yesterday our home studies have been submitted to the attorney's office and they will set a court date to finalize our adoption. We will not have to be physically present in court, but will have to be present via the phone. That should be right around the April 9th date.

We look forward to the day Kaleigh is officially a Racine (most of you probably didn't know she wasn't!) In our hearts it is obviously already official, but we will be glad to have it legally official. From there it's more paperwork-getting her a birth certificate with our name on it, getting her a SS #-you know the essentials! I'll tell you what, we sure do love that girl!! We are thankful that finalization is the next step on this beautiful journey!! (and how could you not when you get to look at this sweet face all day!)