Well, we are truly in the "it's almost time" phase. We are what the week of Christmas is to Christmas Day! I have spent a couple of days last week and this week tying up ends with our social worker and our attorney. Many people have followed this because they are curious about the process as much as they care about us. So, I figured I would devote some time to telling you what has been going on the last couple of weeks.
Between the various holidays, we have been getting things ready for the baby. Our social worker has been in contact with us a couple of times a week to clear up some questions, make sure we are feeling good about the process, and just ease any stress we might be feeling. And here I use "we" but actually mean "me" :). I'm sure Mark is stressed in his own special way, but he doesn't show it!
Anyways, so I have talked with the social worker, our BM has talked with her social worker to make sure she is ready. And on that front things are good. She has asked us for some money to help support her after she has the baby, so she can take some time off to recover. We are happy to do this. It's going to be a difficult time for her, so anything we can do to ease that for her, we are willing. It just means we tighten the belt a little and take our parents up on their offerings if we have to. But I firmly believe at this point that God has and will continue to provide everything we need.
We have spoken with the attorney so that he could advise us of our "legal risk". Basically that means that he has to let us know what we are looking at legally where the birth father is concerned. In this case, he is not in the picture and is not aware of the adoption plan. So there is a registry that they have to check. Several years ago the courts set up this registry for men to put their names on. In the event that a guy has sex, he is considered "on notice" that he could be a father. So if he wants to have a legal claim, he must go on to this registry and put his name in. This moves the burden from the courts and the adoptive parents to the birth father. Basically if a guy wants to have any claim to a possible child, he needs to take responsibility to register himself. That's my understanding at least. Because there is no way the father will sign away his parental rights, this is the legal way to acquire them.
So, now, we continue to wait. We had a wonderful baby shower (and again we means me) last weekend and I have gotten everything put cleaned and put away. It's all coming together. While it still doesn't seem real, everyone tells me that is normal. It's just so weird to think that this time next week we could have a baby! So weird...
I'll do another post later with some details and pics from that awesome shower. Keep the prayers coming!
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