173 Days

The pastor never called us back about the 3-week-old baby. After hearing some of the details, I knew it was a long shot, but a return phone call would have been nice anyway. Oh, well. At least he's aware of us and knows how to get ahold of us now. Private adoption really is all about networking!

I really have no other news on the adoption front. I've given out our cards to everyone I know and even some I don't. I've been too busy with babysitting and chasing around little ones and fighting a cold that I haven't been reading blogs or looking into more networking possibilities. We're definitely in a "wait and see" mode right now.

Babysitting is going well. We're getting to know each other and H's cues and I think it's going to work out great. Her parents got me an extra car seat so with the weather getting better we'll be able to go to the park and bike trail this summer... once I get up the nerve to venture out of the house with the two of them. (And on the rare occassion that they are both up from their afternoon naps with time left to do anything before she gets picked up!) I'm considering going to laptime at the library on Wednesday...

Kasen had someone flip a switch on in him the other day. He just all of a sudden started cruising on furniture, waving, saying "hi" and "uh oh," and I think he signed "eat" to me. Today I saw him rolling his ball down the hallway and crawling after it and caught him standing on the back of his walker... he's a climber!

138 Days: Cryptic

So I'm going to be kind of cryptic because I want to respect the privacy of those involved and not come off as talking about their business... especially when what I'm going on is heresay at this point. Needless to say, I may come back and edit this post if I say something that turns out to be completely wrong.

I'm still waiting for a return call from my contact, a pastor in Columbus (we'll call him Pastor T), but I did talk to my neighbor after he talked to him the other day.

Baby J is in emergency foster care in Texas because both of her parents are in jail and her grandparents cannot take her. I believe Baby J is now at the point that they are looking for extended family to take her.

Having foster care already involved definitely throws up a red flag for us... we are not approved to adopt from the foster care system. I don't know when "emergency foster care" goes from being a temporary thing to actually being in the foster care system. Because her parents are in jail, they may have automatically terminated their parental rights... I have no idea how that works with those incarcerated. (I do know that if they will be in jail for two years or more, then their rights can be involuntarily terminated.) If their rights haven't been terminated, I believe there's a chance that we could do private adoption between us and them, again depending on what the laws are for inmates. My attorney suggested that I contact an attorney in the county she is in to get basic things answered,* but I don't know where she is yet. Anyone have any insight to this type of stuff?

I don't know how Pastor T knows this family, but there are other things going on that he is looking into so even if we can't get Baby J, something else may work out. I hope to hear from him today, but if I don't, I'm going to call him again tomorrow.

*I know, you're thinking "isn't that something your attorney should be doing...?" Not necessarily. With private adoption, the adoptive parents (APs) do the majority of the footwork, especially with basic things like getting questions answered. The more we do, the less fees the attorney has to take out of the retainer. So far all advice and stuff he's given us has been free!

134 Days: a possible situation...?

So I got a call a little while ago from my neighbor about a 2-week-old baby who needs a home. He left a message with the birth family so now we wait to see if they call.

Yes - a 2-week-old. As in already born.

I'm going to call the attorney tomorrow just to triple check that everything is in order as this could happen very fast.

:::eeek!:::

Update
It's a girl and she is 3-weeks-old now.