after waiting 256 days (that is 8 months, 13 days), we became the legal parents of Declan!

our original court date was august 19th, but due to circumstances beyond our control or understanding, our final adoption hearing was rescheduled to today. while the state laws of indiana require a 3 month period for the finalization of our adoption, the state laws of nevada (where dexwas born) require a 6 month waiting period. so we’ve been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for this day to happen for us.

 
and when we arrived on time for our appointment, we learned that we’d have to wait some more. 2 hours in fact. 2 hours in a stuffy hallway with an 8 month old and a 17 month old was interesting (our morningstar family entourage).
add in a 4 year old, an 18 month old, a 3 month old and a 4 month old, and it was amazing there weren’t more meltdowns. and that was just the hallway. there were even more babies and children in the actual waiting area for the court room. all during naptime!
i was so pleased by the good behaviors of our boys. despite the waiting, the warmth, the boredom & the hunger, dex & jake did great!

when it was finally our family’s turn in the queue of 6 final adoption hearings, it lasted all of 15 minutes. a few questions posed to jon & i about the adoption process and then the judge approved our request. YAY! oh, and dex was a amazing during all of the proceedings as well. we are greatly blessed to have a wonderful son with a joyful disposition.

and now at 8 months, he’s so fun to be around. yes, there’s been some rough fussy phases that we’ve endured. but once he’d made it through the developmental struggle, the fussies hibernate for a few weeks. some of the fun things he’s learned or currently learning:

and that’s just the things i can recall at this point!

thank you family & friends for joining us on this journey. we’ve appreciated your support & prayers during this time, and we know how loved we all are. We are the happy, blessed parents!

Waiting to adopt has been a much longer process than anything we’ve ever experienced. It’s not that we’re impatient, or that we think things should happen when we say so. But there is not a real, tangible way to prepare oneself for The Wait. And after 1 year, 3 months, and 18 days since we started the official adoption process, we finally have something to report.

Before we get into all that, we just want to thank EVERYONE who has prayed for us, supported us, donated to our adoption fund, and continued to encourage us during this journey. We know so many of you want us to be parents and we appreciate your love and kindness.

On January 4, 2010, we should be welcoming baby Star into our family. Due dates are not set in stone, so we could easily become parents before or after this date, but at this point, it’s the best guess. We’ve been selected by a wonderful birthmother who wants to place her baby in a loving home with great family & friend support. In the few weeks that we’ve been getting to know our birthmother, we have developed a good basis for friendship and for a relationship that will last a lifetime.

So in 75 days (2 months and 14 days), we’ll be traveling out to Nevada to meet and greet our baby. Though at this point, we can’t even make solid travel plans. The planner in me is quite apprehensive, but the relaxed me knows it will be fine. That everything will work out accordingly.

When we travel, we will have to spend 10-14 days out in Nevada while we wait for all the legal paperwork to be swapped and approved between Indiana and Nevada. Interstate adoptions can be complicated, but we trust and believe that our adoption professionals know what they’re doing and will be make sure all the paperwork is done correctly and efficiently. We’ll be in a town where we know absolutely no one but our birthmother and in a hotel room that will definitely feel like a cage after a week. But we’ll be bonding with our baby (and have free wi-fi), so that should make the time pass by quickly.

Please continue to pray for us, for our baby, for our birthmother and for the rest of our journey.