Update after court

On Tuesday, May 1st, we had a court hearing regarding Little Guy & Baby Girl. They have not had contact with their birth parents since January – the birth parents last saw Little Guy on January 19 and last saw Baby Girl on January 26 – 2 days after she was born. The state has made numerous attempts to contact them, all to no avail. They have now moved and the state is not real sure where they are. The aunt and uncle that had originally wanted to raise Baby Girl have now stepped back from the case. We had been having weekly visits with their family, but these all ended (by the aunt/uncle) the last week of March. The birth parents did not show up to court on Tuesday. Parental termination has been filed on Little Guy, and according to the commissioner and social worker, it looks like parental termination on Baby Girl will be done in either 3 months or 6 months (it depends on what the statues/laws say regarding abandonment and siblings). Regardless, we are anticipating that both Little Guy and Baby Girl will be legally free to adopt by this fall, and then we can move on to the adoption stage for both of them.

As for Little Man’s case – that too will hopefully be done by this fall. At this point, the case has turned from “the best interest of Little Man” to “the best way for the state to win the termination hearing”. This means that birth mom visits will continue and services to the birth mom will continue to be offered until the termination of parental rights is complete. Just recently, the birth mom has requested a Circle of Security evaluation - we are not sure when that will be done. Right now, the parties involved will be meeting on June 1 to set a date for the termination hearing. Unfortunately, this is heard in Superior Court, so the date will really depend on how busy the criminal docket is, and if something major comes up criminally, the termination hearing will have to be put on hold until the docket clears. They’ve told us that the termination hearing will be scheduled anywhere from 3 weeks to 16 weeks after June 1. Arrghh! The court system is just incredible! We are really trying to be patient because we know that God is in control of this, but sometimes, it is very hard! Especially since Little Man is only getting older, and the visits are becoming more confusing to him the older he gets. You can pray specifically that God protects Little Man – emotionally and mentally – during these visits. I know he is physically safe, and the visits are supervised, but we are just praying protection over his mind during the visits.

Little Man continues to amaze us with his communication – he talks non-stop and about everything! He is a smart little cookie! Little Guy started walking just before Easter, and now is running after Little Man and doing everything Little Man does – egads! However, Little Guy hasn’t really started talking yet – probably because he can’t get a word in edgewise around Little Man. Baby Girl is very alert, smiling all the time, and “talking” and laughing at us. It's amazing how similar Baby Girl and Little Guy are - I can pretty much anticipate a lot of her reactions based on what Little Guy did. And they look so much alike!

So keep praying for us! Thanks for being a listening ear!