The Neverending Story

"Adoption is a lifelong process."

-David Brodzinsky, adoption specialist.

So, we have pretty much come full circle now with our adoption story. We blogged a little about Aurora's birth and our story continues on from there.

I have had quite a few questions asked of me about the finalization process. This process varies from state to state and from case to case. Aurora was officially "placed" with us 2 days after her birth. This was the day that Momma A transferred her parental rights to us, which of course meant more paperwork for all of us. Aurora legally is in the custody of the adoption agency and we are her "foster parents" for a time. We left the hospital with Aurora but were not able to go home yet. Both Indiana and Kentucky state governments had to give approval to this paperwork before we can leave the state Aurora was born in. We were able to come home a week later.

In our case, there was a 30 day period for Aurora's birth father to file for parental rights. There are many different ways of giving notification to the birth father and to file for parental rights, again it varies from state to state. Aurora's birth father did not file for parental rights and when the time period ended his rights were terminated.

Then our social worker, Dave, came and visited us in our home about month and half after Aurora was born. He is just checking to make sure everything is going well for all of us. He visited us again about 2 months later, once again seeing how things are going. After this visit we can start the finalization.

Dave with Aurora

We called an adoption attorney to represent Jared and I for the finalization. We sent him some more paperwork and he has access to our case at the adoption agency. Our attorney filed paperwork with the state government, who after quite a long wait, assigned an ad litum (someone to represent the child's best interests) to Aurora. He had to come to the house and give a report that it was a safe place for a child and see Aurora interact with us. As he was leaving, he said that he was very impressed, that he didn't see homes or families very often that were like us and he didn't have any concerns about us...which was very nice to hear and came as a bit of a relief.

Our finalization date is set for October 15th, where Jared, Aurora and I will go meet with our attorney, her ad litum, our social worker Dave, and the judge. Then Aurora will legally be our child!

Then two days later we will have Aurora sealed to us at the Louisville temple and then she will be ours for eternity! The sealing ordinance has its basis in the bible when Jesus tells Peter that he will be able to bind on earth and in heaven (found in Matthew 16:19 and in other scriptural references like the prophet Elijiah). We participate in the sealing ordinance so God recognizes us as bound together as a family here and in heaven, forever.

Thanks Sheila for helping make our announcement card! I'm going to try very hard to actually get these sent out! :)

We are so very excited and not the least because Momma A is going to be there for the sealing! I'm sure there will be lots and lots of pictures and I will post them as this blog will now be getting back to its normal programming.