As you may know, I’m going through the process of adopting my stepson. So far our lawyers have really been fantastic, and with the cooperation of his biological father the process has been fairly smooth. Our lawyer knows that we want to speed up the process as much as possible to avoid a long drawn out thing, but I think maybe he’s going a little bit too aggressive. Our schedules are so hectic right now that trying to find time to get all the adoption stuff taken care of is a challenge. Combine that with school, work, and our business interests and you can see how it can be real stressful real soon.
So far we’ve been able to get the paperwork back from his biological father proving paternity. Since it was never established at birth and he wasn’t even on the birth certificate, it had to be legally established before it could be legally terminated. The paperwork for termination of parental rights was sent out and we received word today that he was able to get them completed and sent out. That is a really good feeling, but my wife is skeptical. She’ll feel a lot better once the lawyer calls and says he’s received the package and everything is in order. You can’t blame her, she’s been waiting to do this for a while and she’s really excited.
The hardest part I think has been all the paperwork and running around that needs to be done. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue, but our lawyer put a court order to have our social study done by April 30th, and that’s not a lot of time. I’ve been speaking with the social worker that is going to handle our case and she needs quite a bit of information in a very short period of time. The good news is that we are set to have our home study done on April 20th, and as long as everything goes smooth, should have a final court date sometime in May. Not too shabby.
Sometimes we forget how hard it is to get some of the little things done like get your fingerprints done (for the mandatory criminal background check) or even to find a notary to validate your abuse study request. That type of administrative running around can really slow you down. Plus, the fact that our local government systems aren’t always the most efficient, it can be a frustrating process. In the end it’s really cool though, and I’m really excited. My son is excited to have my last name, so we can all have the same one. I love him to death, so I know all this temporary stress will be well worth it when it’s all over. More to come!
