Monday, October 29, 2012

Some Bumps.....

Well....things aren't going quite as planned. We found out late last week that we are not going to be allowed to sign the waiver for reading the girls' redacted files. Apparently only relative or kinship placements are allowed to waive their rights to read the file. We have to wait for the file to come in. So at this point we are at a standstill until the file gets in & we can get down to the CPS office to read it. Everything else we need to complete has been done & everyone is waiting on the word that this has been completed, then we will sign our placement paperwork & our attorney will file the petitions. So, I guess its just a little more wait & see. All 3 kids are doing really well. They are looking forward to Halloween this week (well not D as much as Tuck & Sissy).The baby is finally old enough to really sit in the room with the bigger kids & play with what they're playing with & she is really happy about it! (The photo above is Tuck & Sissy, this is what happens late at night at Walmart).

Sunday, October 21, 2012

New Things.....

     I really wish I could blog a little more often than I have been! I always swear I'm going to do updates weekly, next thing I know its been a month or so. At this point the girls have been home just a few days shy of 9 months. There are a lot of changes coming up. We have set the date to sign our adoptive placement paperwork! We are scheduled to sign on Halloween. We're very excited because as soon as we sign those our attorney will file the documents with the court so we can finalize on December 18th, one week before Christmas. There were 3 things we needed to do before we could sign the placement paperwork. One of them was to negotiate subsidy. We got those documents turned in & they have been accepted & should be coming to us in the mail any day. The other thing we were waiting on was the girls' developmental assessments. I took the girls for these this past week. The process they use is very interesting, they do things like see if the baby can stack blocks when prompted, or get a raisin from a jar with a narrow opening (too narrow to put a finger in). For Sissy they asked her questions like "what do you do when you're hungry?", or "what do you do with a bed?". They also did physical tests to see their motor skills etc. Both girls were well above their target levels (which I expected). The last thing we are waiting on that is NOT done yet is reading the girls' de-identified files. They requested redacted copies of the case file last month but it still hasn't come in. If we do not get this in before Halloween we have to either put off signing the placement paperwork which means we likely won't finalize this year, or we have to sign a waiver saying we agreed not to read the file before the placement. At this point there is nothing in the file that would change our minds so we would gladly sign the waiver so we can continue the placement. The only thing that worries me is if we sign the waiver for the file they won't EVER send it to us. I really want that file for our girls. It tells them the story of their life from a third party, not us and not their biological family. I want them to read what the state said happened, not what we TOLD them happened. If they ever find their biological family, I want to prepare them with the facts of their actions. They deserve it. I also took Sissy to see the ballet today. I think she liked it, she behaved very well & I couldn't have asked for her to act more "proper" at 2 years old. A couple of other things is I recently got a new job (I know, again!). The school I started out at the beginning of the year was an hour drive away & didn't have the training & room for advancement I had hoped for. Next Monday I will be starting at another autism school as a behavior therapist in their ABA program. Its a great position with an amazing structured training program to help me progress in my therapist levels. (The picture above is Daddy painting D's nails & then playing Hide & Seek with Sissy. )

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Signing on the dotted line....

   Things have changed so much and then again they haven't. We have been getting everything lined up to signed the adoption paperwork for the girls. The documents we signed previously were just for foster & these will state our intent to adopt with the court. There are a few things we still have to do before we can sign the adoption placement paperwork. One of the things we have to do is take the girls in for their psychological evaluations. We have those scheduled for next week. We also still need to read the girls' file & negotiate subsidy. Our case worker is confident we will get it all done in the next 2 weeks so we are set to sign the paperwork on October 31st. They usually try to change the placement types on the last day of the month for accounting purposes. This way starting November 1st we would get adoption subsidy instead of foster stipend etc. As soon as we sign the paperwork our attorney will file the documents to finalize with the court. He said we should finalize at the December 18th court date already set up for adoptions. October 31st was pretty much the last date to sign our paperwork & still be able to finalize this year! We are so excited to introduce our girls to the world and get on with living happily ever after with our two little princesses.