First meeting done...three to go

Liz and I attended our first monthly adoption meeting at the LDS family services center here in Las Vegas last night. It consisted of several other couples preparing to adopt some for their first time and others for the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time. A lawyer who has spent 14 years primarily woring on adoptions was there and spoke about what needs to take place to finalize everything. It is basically a two-fold process. The first step is the termination of parental rights by the birth parents which can't occur for the mother until 72 hours after the child is born, but varies somewhat for the father. If the father is not married to the mother his parental rights can be terminated at any time. If the father is married to the mother than it cannot occur until 72 hours after the birth. The kind of tricky part is if the father is unknown. In this case, all children placed for adoption with unkown fathers are listed in a legal publication here in Las Vegas which serves as notification and if no father responds to the listing within a short time period than the paternal rights are terminated and the adoption can be finalized. The second part of the process is the actual adoption. The adoption can be finalized 6 months after the child is born. It takes place in a family court and altogether takes about 5-10 minutes. It is the only time cameras and children are allowed into the courtroom and the lawyer said it is almost as much of a celebration for the judges and bailiffs since they spend 95% of their time dealing with broken families. The rest of the meeting included a panel of 4 adults who had been adopted, 1 of which has since adopted 3 of her own, and another who is attempting to adopt her first. They each shared their eperiences and answered several questions.

It was a learning experience for Liz and I and we are looking forward to the next meeting. We have all of our questionaires done and just have a few things left to do such as physicals, fingerprints, and a picture collage. We are truly excited for the possibilities that lie ahead and know that the Lord's hand has been present throughout this process.