Finalization and an update!!

We finally have a finalization date! If you recall from my previous posts, birth parent rights are terminated after 10 days in Arkansas, but our adoption still has to be finalized in front of a judge. We have been waiting for our agency's attorney to finish all of the paperwork for Carter's adoption, get it sent to the judge, and schedule a time for the lawyer and us to meet with the judge for our adoption. Well...we finally have our date set for November 2nd, at 9AM! We are very excited! Though we are obviously Carter's parents, I think technically until finalization we are only considered legally to be his guardians, and I think that our agency may still have some legal tie to him until finalization. It was interesting at the hospital, because Carter was signed over to our agency worker, and then she gave him to us. So...technically I think she may legally still be his "guardian" as well until all this finalization is complete. Anyway, I don't even PRETEND to understand all the legal stuff involved with adoption, I just know that we have to meet with the judge, so that's what we're gonna do! After finalization, (according to our agency) we have to wait 6 months before we are able to receive a new birth certificate with our names listed as Carter's parents. That kinda stinks because that is right around tax time, which means we may not get it before our taxes need to be submitted, which means we will have to try to get Carter a temporary ID number. Not only is it a hassle, but I'm not even 100% sure we will be able to do that. But...we shall see.

We are definitely excited about this day and are looking forward to it. If we decided to celebrate any sort of "Adoption Day" or "Family Day" this would be the day we celebrate. We can't celebrate "Gotcha Day" because that doesn't make much sense considering we "got him" on the day he was born! Also there is some controversy in the adoption community about the use of the term "Gotcha Day". So if we decide to celebrate anything special besides Carter's birthday, it will be one of the ideas I mentioned earlier, and we will celebrate it on November 2nd! Please pray everything goes smoothly!

PS Make sure you look at the post below this one to see Carter roll over!