Charlie Adoption Update

Two weeks ago, Charlie had an important court date that Tori and I attended. It was our first time to actually go inside the courtroom because for some reason in the past we've been relegated to the waiting room. Anyway, there was quite a bit of drama and anticipation as we listened to the back and forth between lawyers appointed to represent Charlie, his birth dad, his birth mom, and the county. We didn't understand all that was going on, especially because the judge was a major mumbler (seems like judges shouldn't be allowed to mumble), but ultimately we got the outcome that we were hoping for: the parental rights of Charlie's birth parents were terminated.

This is a major step in the adoption process, so we were excited when Charlie's appointed lawyer told us that the adoption should be complete hopefully before the next status hearing in January. Knowing that things often take longer than expected, we were thinking we'd for sure have this all completed in the next three to six months.

Then last week the county social worker came out and told us that they can't find his birth certificate, which is a huge issue and could be a major source of delay. I could tell she was nervous to tell us this, but it's definitely not her fault (she was just assigned to the case), so there wasn't much to say. We're disappointed about the delay, but since the parental rights have been terminated we're still very confident that it's just a matter of time until we can legally adopt Charlie.