Finalized

Decree of Adoption states:

It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that the adoption of Brandon Lee M, a minor child, by Gregory and Jamie, husband and wife, be and is hereby ganted;  that said child is herby adopted as the child of said petitioners; and that the name of the child be changed to Brandon Lee H

Forever family created 12/29/11

Signature

On December 18th 2011 Brandon' birthfather signed the relinquishment papers to terminate his parental rights to Brandon!!!  We have been waiting for this moment for 2.5 years and never believing that it would happen.  We assumed we would have to go back to court and fight AGAIN.  We are in a state of shock, shear happiness, and well yeah happiness.  We now look forward to December 29th where we will ask the judge to make our adoption final.  Court is at 3pm and will be celebrating afterwards.  Celebrating the adoption, family, and friends who helped make this journey a little more bearable.  We are so thankful we get to raise our son Brandon and never have to worry about him being taken away from us.  We can let go of those nightmares, let go of that worry, let go of that fear.  WHAT A RELIEF!!  Words can not really express where our hearts are right now.  We are simply enjoying focusing on the finalization.  We received a call from the lawyer today asking, "What do you want to name your son?"   It's nice to be asked that question.  We are excited about the hearing, the celebration, and the major closure we will be getting in just 9 short days from today!!

Mediation

Third times the charm, I hope.  This is the third time mediation has been rescheduled, but we will keep our fingers crossed.  It's currently set for Dec 18th at 2:30 

Travel

Lawyers new plan since our BF has used every excuse in the book not to come to KC is for us to go to him.  Our lawyer will be in that area in a few weeks and we are trying to pull this all together.  It will mean that Greg and I will have to travel to St Louis, pick up BF, drive to Columbia (2hours) have meeting with everyone, then drive Justin back St. Louis, and then oh yes drive the 4 hours back to KC.  Jeez!!!   How awesome is that going to be?

Update

Absolutely nothing has happened since last post.  The days seem to go like this,  spoke with BF and hes coming up, wait a week and he wont answer my calls, now hes not coming.  Then hes coming and now hes not coming, repeat, repeat.  No dates secured for the future, but the mediator is back from her summer vacation so we will try to reschedule with her.  In the mean time we celebrated Brandon's second birthday, Alyssa started school, car repair bills were more than the car was worth so we traded in our car for a newer model with a warranty, we are headed to OR next week for Greg's brother's wedding, and then Alyssa's birthday in a few weeks. Lots of things to do to TRY to keep our mind off that fact that our adoption is not finalized.  Sorry I dont update much, I have been pretty upset for the last few months.  We never expected our birthfather to tell us he would sign away his rights and we were pleasantly surprised, but then for him to take it away from us after dangling it in front of us has been really hard to get past.  We are trying though.

New Date

We finally found out why nobody could reach him, he lost his phone!  Third phone number in 2 months, jeez.  We heard from our lawyer that he was no longer wanting to sign his rights away.  BIG disappointment!  We were pretty surprised considering how well we were getting to know this family. Then we decided we needed to get him back to mediation and finally we heard this last Friday that he was willing to me us for mediation on July 18th.  So this is our new date to pray/hope for that this will all end.  On this date either he will sign his rights away or we will know our next step will be court (AGAIN)!  It seems like such a long time ago that we were thinking about being in court, going through the trial, worrying about the judge, but all those worries came flooding back. For now we will focus on his birthday coming up and trying to stay positive.