10 Months Old

My posts are getting further apart. I guess this is for two reasons. One: that I have a very active 10 month old boy to look after. Two: that this blog is about our adoption journey and that is a part of our lives that is winding down. We have gone from prospective adoptive parents, to adoptive parents and now just just parents. Richard is 10 months old today. It is also his father's 47th Birthday.

In October, we were informed by our adoption agency that we could contact an adoption attorney and start the official adoption procedures. This included signing documents for the attorney so they would have access to the adoption agency's reports on our progress as a family. Not knowing how long any of this would take, we just waited. Then, in November, we got an email from our attorney's paralegal saying she had not received the agency's paperwork. Come to find out, someone at the agency had just filed away the letter requesting the home study, etc. After an email to them the agency got right back in line with sending the proper paperwork.

Fast forward through the holidays. We got word through the attorney that the paperwork for our adoption had been filed with the local circuit court. Hunter called them to see if we had to wait for the circuit court session in January. In this small town, the court only meets once every 3 months. But the staff assured us that the judge would get the paperwork and could sign off on it at anytime. Hunter checked with the clerk last week and they said that the judge had only signed one of the three documents sent. We checked with the attorney and she said this was absolutely right. So we have two more documents that need to go through the courts which include paperwork passing from the agency to the circuit court judge. I can't believe how slow it all happens.

In the mean time, Richard is getting so big. He has 8 teeth now. He has gone from crawling to walking around the furniture. He got a big boy haircut last week. He went from this

To this

And now he's doing this!