Court Update

Lil J has been in care for 10 months now. We had court the other day. The court hearing was basically just to have on record certain things about the case.

Things like if his mom was working her plan, and if not where is was lacking. Also things like "new info" on the case, etc. It is basically a 5 minute hearing.

The 5 minute part is the most frustrating for me, since court was scheduled for 1 pm, and I was there until 5:30 before we got called. plus there was supossed to be a visit, for which mom did not show, so we were in that area since 11 am (left our house at 10am).

the judge is a pretty pro-child judge and does not take any BS from the bio parents. She was pissed that mom was not in court, especially since she was not in court the last time. she appeared by phone.

In addition to court, the state has a 10 month review of the case. At this time, the figure out where they think the case is going, detail any changes that are needed, and really put into record their observations on the case.

Well, since mom is not doing her plan (she is "trying" according to her and I loved it when the judge said, "well, trying and doing are 2 different things lol), and since she has gotten herself into additional trouble - well, they are looking to change visits to once every other week, instead of 1x a week.

plus, they will be officially changing the plan from reunificition/concurrent planning to adoption! Just because the plan changes does not mean that it will go to adoption. Once the plan is actually changed, the mom still has time to do her plan, but her plan requires some long term things, non of which have even been started.

Once the plan is changed, then we will be given an adoption caseworker.

We have to submit a letter asap stating our formal intent to adopt. I am sure it will be hard to write. We have to state our reasons for wanting to adopt him, and must also state the reasons why we SHOULD adopt him.

To have everything on paper and on record is a big step. Just wanted to share our update :)

Is she named after anyone?

I have gotten that question (no joke) about a dozen times already. From doctors, nurses, strangers in the store, staff in the hospital, relatives, etc, etc.

I guess because Cora Evelyn is an "older" name, people just assume that she has to be named after someone.

But - nope, she is not named after anyone.

This is the story of her name:

We had a hard time picking names. We pretty much had our boy's name right from the start. We knew a boy would be named after my husband. But, the girl's name we had trouble with.

I like older traditional sounding names for girls. We wanted a "different" name, but not a weird name. Also wanted something that people would know how to spell, and pronounce.

So, we looked up the SS# Index from random years from about 100 years ago. The list starts in 1879, so I knew we could get some good options. That said, there are names on there that I would NEVER consider using - very old lady names. But, I knew we would get some to put on the list.

The names on our list were names from a variety of years. None were too popular, even back then. We had maybe 7 names on the "list" and all of them were older names, but also names that could seem modern.

Here are the other names: Adele, Aubrey, Estelle, Estella, Sylvia, Cora, Evelyn - and maybe one or two more that I can't remember.

It is possible that we may still use those names in the future if we have another baby, or we may get a totally new list :)

I guess I will have to get used to the question, "So, is she named after anyone?"

Merry Christmas from Cora

I took a few pics of the little kids the other day. Cora really was not too happy, but I did get a few good shots. Got a BUNCH of great ones of Lil J - but those I can not share.

Here are just a sample of the one's I got of Cora. I will probably attempt to take more by the tree and in her Christmas dress. But, we will see.

I want to send out christmas cards, I guess I should get on that.