My friends made me write this

I went grocery shopping this morning and came home to this group message from some of my friends:

Teresa you really need to update your blog. I love to read it at work and it is clearly time to update!

I so agree.

So....come on Teresa.....38 days til Easter, so how about a blog a day. I would be thrilled!

Me too!

I just checked.....no update! Come on Teresa!!

Peer pressure, Teresa.

we know you have a very calm, quiet home with no reason why you can't stop everything to blog!

38 posts in 38 days? Whew! Challenge accepted!!

Where is our Love Story taking us? I'm pretty sure it's taking us towards another adoption. I got a call today from the caseworker asking that both Brandon and I be physically present at court (not a usual requirement) next week because Baby 4's Dad has expressed to his attorney that he will be signing a surrender.

Surrender.

Dad is agreeing to voluntarily relinquish his parental rights and allow us to adopt Baby 4. In return, he is asking that we continue to support visits between him and his son 6 times/ year for the next 11 years. We have to agree to this as well as the county, and Baby 4's attorney. As long as Dad still wants to do this, I believe all parties agree on the conditions.

1,085 days in foster care.

We got to this point through several events. When 4 came into care, there was a plan made with each of his parents individually that laid out what needed to be done to safely reunite him with them. There was also a search through extended family for a suitable relative guardian- one potential relative resource was found. Throughout the first 457 days, the county worked diligently to get 4 out of foster care. After that point, a petition to terminate parental rights was filed in the courts. Right around day 600, Mom surrendered her rights. On the 700th day, the judge decided we needed to give the diligent efforts to reunify 4 with his biological family one more year. When the case was re-evaluated on day 969, the decision was made to move forward with termination of parental rights while asking the judge to dismiss the petition of the relative resource. Legally, the judge can not move the child to his family. When the judge does this, all legal ties are severed between 4 and his biological family- no one is required to allow any ongoing contact. I can not speak specifically to anyone's intentions, but I would be feeling like a surrender with legally enforceable visits is preferential to a TPR with no continued contact with my child. So on 1,090 we may just do that. After that, we will need to have a homestudy done and file a petition to adopt Baby 4. That could reasonably get done in 6-8 months. Adoption day could come as soon as Fall.

Permanency.