adoption!!!!!

i can't pull all nighters any more, i'm getting too old. the trials of the overworked and sleep deprived that's what this blog should be called.

well, we went to court this morning and i was extremely nervous. thank heavens for greg or i'd be a total basketcase. anyway, it went great! we were out of there in an hour. can you believe that? i was expecting some long drawn out process but nope. the social worker was there and he told the judge that it would be best if matt was with us. the other lawyer didn't really say anything. the judge asked us if we were prepared to be matt's legal parents and we were, YES!!! then he asked matt if that's what he wanted and he said, YES!! we were all bouncing around like tigger on a hyper day and the judge signed some papers and that was that. he gave matt a choice of a toy and then we were out of there. OMG!!!!! he's finally ours. 4 years of foster care, back and forth with parents who treated him like a human punching bag and 2 adoption proceedings later and he's ours. you know what? it was all completely worth it. i love him so much it's crazy. i'm so happy about this that i could burst.

foster care news

we got some news about matt's foster care situation. his mother was sentenced and will be staying in jail. i should feel conflicted about this but really, i'm not. i've felt for a long time that he isn't a priority to her. how much abuse can he take? he doesn't remember when he first came to stay with us when he was 3, but if they keep putting him back in that situation it's going to affect him permanently.

anyway, there's going to be a custody hearing next week. the general consensus is that she'll lose custody permanently and the ministry will get guardianship. which means, matt will be eligible for adoption. But, this has happened before. last year when he was with us, she had a year to convince them she was a fit parent. only when we applied to adopt matt did she realise she needed to take it seriously. if her rights are terminated, we may have to go to another hearing about being his permanent foster parents.

i know we're not supposed to get attached but that's hard to do when you have a child living in your home. he was only supposed to be here for a couple of months and i've been expecting them to suddenly take him back. the thought that he could stay here for good is almost too much to hope for. *flails* i'm really trying not to think about these matters but they creep into my thoughts anyway.