Park pictures

To take my mind off of things this morning I took the kids to the park for pictures.  Here are a few.

Complications and Concerns

Our social worker in CO met with the CO judge this morning.  The judge was not happy with several areas of how our adoption worked out (Utah laws and Utah agency issues).  The most significant issue is that the birth father was never actually contacted before we adopted Blake.  The Utah agency made an attempt to find the father, but because he was never actually found there is a slim chance he could turn up eventually and, in a federal court, gain custody of Blake.  We either need to find the birth father and finalize here in CO meeting CO requirements, or we can go to Utah and finalize there.  Unfortunately, if we finalize in Utah with out ever finding the birth father there is the risk he could show up some day.  We are praying and seeking wisdom at this time to decide what would be the best course for us to take.  Needless to say, this is unexpected and has us very concerned.

Finalization drama

Our Colorado social worker just let us know that it would be wise to go ahead and pull out of trying to finalize here and get a lawyer in Utah.  To finalize in Colorado at this point we would need to locate the birth father and have him sign paperwork.  The Utah agency and birth mother already tried to find the birth father and were unable so our agency here is recommending that we simply finalize in Utah since they do not require birth father paperwork.  We do not know what all will be involved in finding a lawyer and getting a court date.  It may take a while to get everything pulled together, we will hopefully have more  details soon.

Kids with camera

Lana and Bryant took all the above pictures.  They do a really great job with the focus and centering, I did not touch them up at all.  Below is a picture I took of my boys, I just had to include some of the silly faces!

The Three Musketeers

We were reading 'Mickey Mouse in the Three Musketeers' to the kids one day and enjoyed hearing (over dinner that night) all the ways three children could misquote 'All for one and one for all'.  Here are a few examples.

'All for one and one for me'

'One for all and one for two'

'All for all and all for two'

'All for one and one for you'

Girlies on the 4th

Prayer for finalization of Blake

Looks like we may have some more challenges ahead before we finalize our adoption with Blake.  The judge who normally works with local families here in Colorado has recently retired and the new judge does not like or approve Utah laws and will not sign off on our finalization.  He has agreed to talk with some other judges before he makes a definitive decision.  If he does not agree to finalize then we will need to hire a lawyer and finalize in Utah (do I see a possible family road trip in the near future?!).  Our prayer is that the judge would be convinced to finalize the adoption here in Colorado, but if that is not in God's plans then we would ask that we would be able to travel to Utah and complete this process quickly and easily.  We have a week or two before the judge will make a final decision.