Since getting home from Florida with Wren we have a few things to accomplish before the adoption is finalized. Birth mom's part of the adoption was complete when we left the hospital but we still have to finalize the adoption in court and get a new Birth Certificate for Wren showing us as her legal parents. As of now we have been given Legal Guardianship of Wren while we complete some post placement checkups before finalization.
We have a choice where to finalize the adoption. We could do Illinois and Wren would have an Illinois birth certificate or we could finalize in Florida and Wren will have a Florida birth certificate. Florida adoption law requires two post placement visits over three months before finalization can be completed. Illinois requires three post placement visits over 6 months before finalization. Because Florida law is quicker and easier we are doing finalization in Florida. Also we already have an attorney that did all the adoption paperwork so she will be doing our finalization paperwork also.
We have had both of our post placement visits that are required by Florida to finalize. Our first one was on August 28th shortly after we got home from Florida. It went really well. Our case worker from Family Core came to our house and we basically just talked for awhile. She needed to know how Wren was doing and her weights and all that from the doctor to be sure she was growing good. Also her eating and sleeping patterns and all that basic stuff. We also talked about the adjustment to having a child and how attachment was going. It was pretty simple. After that visit our case worker wrote up a report on how everything was going and that report will be used to give to the judge when we petition to finalize.
Our next post placement visit was on October 14. This was pretty much the same as the first visit and we just talked for awhile going over all the same things. The purpose of the post placement visits is just to be sure things are going well and there aren't any significant problems that would make us not want to complete the adoption or not be fit to complete the adoption. Overall they are simple and not much to worry about. After this visit, our case worker wrote up the second report and then sent both reports to the State of Illinois and our attorney in Florida so we can finalize!
Finalization takes place once our attorney takes a Petition for Adoption, that Jesse and I signed saying we want the courts to make a date for us to complete our finalization, and our post placement reports to the judge. Then a date is set for finalization in the court. Since it is in Florida we could go to Florida and appear in court to finalize or we can finalize by phone with a notary present with us since we live so far away. Usually a judge is willing to let people finalize by phone that live further away but if he would for some reason say we had to appear in court then we will have to go to Florida (this isn't that likely but you never know).
For finalization I believe the judge calls us and asks us a few questions, then we have a notary present with us and we sign a few legal papers and thats about it! Then we get a new birth certificate for Wren showing us as her legal parents and our adoption is complete. Legally it will be as if Wren is our biological child.
The plan was to finalize in November but that didn't happen. Our attorney is trying all she can to get us a court date before the end of the year but the judges do not have many dates left this year and are not giving them out. So we don't really know what will happen at this point. We are waiting to hear from our attorney if she is able to get a court date for finalization for us in December. If the judges refuse to give her one this year we will have to do finalization sometime at the beginning of next year. We really hope to get it done this year simply to have it be done but also for tax purposes but there are no guarantees.
Our adoption has went so smoothly though so if it ends up being January before we finalize that will be ok, as long as we have our baby girl we are happy!!
So if you want to pray for a smooth finalization and maybe even that we can finalize this year we would really appreciate it! You have all been such wonderful support on our journey and we can't imagine having gone through this adoption without our friends and family! The end of this journey is in sight but really it is just the beginning of many more awesome adventures to come with our little Wren!
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