Today was the day! We finally signed adoptive placement paperwork for the girls! Their redacted file came in on Halloween & we read it over the weekend. I won't go into details because I think they're private but I was very surprised. We were under the impression our older girl was removed because of general neglect, not straight physical abuse. We were wrong. Apparently she was removed for significant physical & emotional abuse at the hands of her biological mother. The baby was removed at birth due to drug exposure & that fact her sister was already in custody. For the last 10 months I felt a little bitter sweet for the girls' biological family. I felt sorry for them, I mean their parents were both raised by abusive drug addicts themselves & just repeated the pattern. I felt sorry for their extended family, it wasn't THEIR fault the girls' parents were addicts & they ended up losing their nieces, granddaughters, cousins etc. But after reading their file & waiting the last 10 months, I still feel sorry for them, but I'm starting to realize we deserve this. Their biological family could have stepped up, they could have fought for the girls,but they didn't. We did. We fought for them, we advocated for them, we put our lives on hold for them, we worked through their emotional problems, we did the visits, took the classes & made the sacrifice, we took the biggest risk of our lives & our son's young life. If they wanted what we have now, they should have fought for the girls like we did. We deserve this, our family deserves this & most important, our GIRLS deserve this. They deserve a family that will always be there to fight for them. So I just hope I can stop myself from letting my sympathy for them overshadow the happiest time in our lives. This was the last BIG step before we finalize. We should still have time to finalize this year. Our attorney is ready with the paperwork & assuming the court can get their end completed in time, we should be completely final before Christmas. (The photo above is our pack heading out to trick or treat, Sissy was a witch, Dee was a ladybug & Tuck was an alien!).
