[itznett]

LOL!

Glad things are looking up....keep me posted!

[szypzz]

As most of us already know from being in this system the squeaky (freaked out) wheel gets the oil! hehe

Glad to hear things are moving again for you!

[JL Cauling]

We've had three visits with Clark (not his name ) already. He is coming home for his first overnight this weekend.

As long as the interstate goes through, we should be just fine. YAY!!

Any updates from your neighborhood?

[szypzz]

I'm so happy to hear that things are going so well for you! We also just received some great news. As of 10:15 a.m. on April 14th we will be an "official" family. My parents, DH's parents, my brother, DH's brother, and DH's sister will all be there for finalization. We are all so excited. Hard to believe it's really happening!

[JL Cauling]

That's just two weeks away!

A couple of questions,

how long from move in until it was official?

is the hearing in your home county or the county where they were previously?

I'm so pleased for you and your family! Such wonderful news!

[szypzz]

Thanks so much!!

We were told at the beginning that it would be 6 months after move-in. However we had a complication because there was still an appeal pending for the termination of parental rights. The court would not do a legal risk adoption so we had to wait, but it was denied almost exactly 6 months after the kids moved in. Since the kids were with us for 6 months we were allowed to go straight from foster parents to finalization.

The hearing is in our home county. I'm assuming all MI adoptions are that way unless under special circumstances because our kids came from one county, we live in another, and our agency is from a third, but the hearing is in our county.

[itznett]

Congrats and many blessing to all!
Nett

[szypzz]

Thanks so much!!

[JL Cauling]

szy - less than a week until your big day!

I'm going to Ohio this morning to pick up our little boy. The interstate paperwork isn't done yet, but we're hoping it will be approved next week and that will allow him to stay with us forever.

Prayers, happy thoughts and positive energy appreciated!

Happy Easter everyone!

[itznett]

Gald to hear that all of the waiting, hopes and dreams finally pays off. Best of luck to all.
Happy Easter!
Nett

[szypzz]

I just want to thank each and every person who has contributed to this thread. It has been so helpful over the last 10 months or so, especially.

We are "officially" and legally a family now. The finalization was on the 14th and I'm as happy/relieved/excited/terrified as ever. The ceremony was awesome. All of our immediate family plus 2 great-grandmas were there. The kids were so cute, but the older one, DD, not as excited as we were, but she's dealing with a lot. She's so nervous about going back to school tomorrow with a new last name that she hardly could go to bed and she has a terrible case of butterflies. She has said before and again recently that she just wishes she was born to us. It makes my heart sink so, especially because I feel the exact same way. She is taking in cupcakes that she worked very hard on for tomorrow, and I've asked if she'd rather not make a big deal out of it at school, but she says she does. She wants me to come in and say something so she won't have to. She's afraid of what the teacher might say, what the kids might say. We did some role playing and talking through "worst case scenarios" tonight that seemed to help some but I totally feel for her...not wanting to be different or stand out from the crowd. I told her once it's over she'll see it's not nearly as "scary" as she thinks it is...that the unknown is scary and once she's done with tomorrow things will no longer be an "unknown."

Then there's the boy. ;-) I would like him to do something special for his class if he wants. But he's in special ed and they've been very helpful by letting us use his adoptive name all year, so there's no big change going on for him. And I'm not sure what the other kids know about his "living arrangements" anyways, so by having him take in a treat for adoption day he may then be excluded. He hasn't really asked for anything special and pretty much except for he knew we needed the judge's approval he has thought of this as his forever home from the day he moved in.

Everytime I think I might have a handle on how things are going, I get a new reality check and have to start all over again. Oh well, such are the joys of parenting. (And I really am ecstactic that they are REALLY ours!!!)

Thanks in advance for any thoughts and comments. Talk to you all soon.

Hope things are going great for you JL!!

[thewatsonelf]

Congratulations Spyzz! How wonderful for you and your family! My best wishes to you!

The court clerk in our county called and asked us if we wanted to come in for a ceremony or just wanted the paperwork. Since we have had our daughter since she was born, we opted for the paperwork, she is 10 months old, it wouldn't have meant anything to her at this point. But I was really impressed that they would call and ask that. It shows that people do think adoption is important and treat it with the respect it deserves.

GOOD FOR YOU!

keep us posted.

[itznett]

Szypzz-
Many blessings to you all. After having gone thru a disrupted adoption...It's REALLY nice to hear positive things, and know that it really does work. Congrats!!!
Nett

[szypzz]

Thanks so much! It definitely has worked out (so far so good anyway ) in our case.

[Lunahalo]

Hi all
I am new here and found your wonderful postings, I had to stay up late last night reading straight through them from the beginging! It is very nice to read some real life storys, from our state and in the present time!
We are just starting the adoption prosess! I am prepared for a long wait because it seems to go that way, I am already exited about it. We have to wait untill June to start the homestudy, then the real wait will start.
We are hoping to adopt a sibling group, we have 2 biological children, but have always wanted to adopt and just love the large family thing. I am so ready to start this, and love to hear everyones advice. I have read many books already, but if anyone knows of some good ones please share!
Also I am going with the Bloddgett agency and have no idea if there are others in our area or how you go about finding them so any info on that would be good too.
Well It is nice meeting all of you!
Luna