Adoption Status Update

The last time I updated an adoption progress status was August, I think.  It was such a let down that I had to wait a little time to recover to post about it again. Sorry to have left you in the dark. 

Here is the update:
We went to court on August 17.  The Kentucky Judge had not yet executed the TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) for the birthmother. Without that, the Texas Judge would not finalize the adoption.  Kentucky Judge won't execute until the adoption is final.  I think we already talked about this - the chicken and the egg scenario. The reason is simply that the two states have vastly different views on it from a legal perspective.
So, we have spent the last several weeks calling everyone we can think of to try to get some movement on the situation.  Getting the Kentucky Judge to execute the TPR was the least complicated way to go.  So, we started with calling her.  We left a voice mail every day and even wrote to her.  After about a week of this, we received a call from someone in the court system to see how she could help.  I told her the story - and asked how we can get a message to the judge regarding the scenario.  She said she'd check into it and call me back.  Oh, and by the way, the judge's law clerk 'has left the office,' so that would explain a LOT!   I wondered why no one was getting back to me, and why we have been having so much trouble communicating to the judge.  Without a law clerk, there is no one to pass the information on to the judge!  Egad.  If it isn't one thing, it's another....
By the way, that very nice lady from the courts has never called me back.  I've left several messages for her in the past couple of weeks. 

With that, we are going to try to execute parental rights through Texas. This requires SEVERAL steps and seems to be very complicated. 

The first thing we had to do was get even more paperwork signed by the birth mother.  I can't imagine what she is going through - and we keep putting paper in front of her to remind her of this situation.  I hope this is the last of us pestering her for her signature.  She willingly signed it, of course.

Next, we have to launch an official search for the birth father.  This is a Texas requirement.  We have to have the courts run an ad in the newspaper for 21 days.  That is where we stand right now.  Just waiting out the days for the ad to run in the Texas newspaper.

I know these paragraphs seem short in description of what is going on - but believe me when I tell you that for every word written here, there were a zillion phone calls, emails, pieces of paper signed, hours of conversation to discuss options, and countless hours of lost sleep. 

When the ad is done, we hope to go to court in October.   More to follow!! 

Monkeying around

Chilling and relaxin

Here is a cute pic of Levi hanging out with his buddy Joey. Just had to share!

Obligatory blackmail bathtub photos

Levi LOVES bath time!
Tonight we took the opportunity to get some photos durng bath time.  So, we share with you the obligatory bathtub photos that will be used a couple of decades from now - in order to embarrass him when we meet his girlfriends.  Or, to just blackmail him into mowing the lawn.