Legal Things & Birthplan

We realize that we have not had that many updates in our adoption journey lately. Basically we are just getting prepared for Westyn, getting travel plans somewhat in order and praying for our birthmother & child continually. We cannot believe in only 7 weeks from now we could be welcoming home our son!!! WOW!!!

We did get some more information today though regarding the legal aspects of the adoption. As you already have read in a past post probably, our birthfather & birthmother have already sign all the consent forms need for parental termination, however we have to wait until 48 hours at the birth for the documents to go to the King County courthouse. After they go to the King County courthouse we then have somewhat "legal" custody...meaning Bethany Christian Services technically has custody until after 3 post placement visits and then we petition in Whatcom County for our courtdate for finalization. This seems so confusing but we know that everyone will walk us right through it smoothly. We also have no doubts that this is the child God has chosen for our family!!

We also got word today that our birthmother talked with the Bethany pregnancy counselor regarding her birthplan for the hospital. Although things can change (like with any birth) they request a birthplan from the birthmother so then the adoptive parents have some rule of thumb to go by when at the hospital. Basically, our birthmother has asked that we be at the hospital in the waiting room while in labor and then once the baby is born (and all cleaned up :) we are welcomed into the room to meet our little boy!!! She told us that while she is in the hospital for the 48 hours that we are welcomed there anytime, although we are going to give her space to recover too. She also stated that if we would like someone to come with us that is completely fine, well her exact words were, "the more the merrier!!" That tells us how much of a family oriented person she is :). My sister will actually be traveling with us to help us out and take pictures of our entire journey. We are so excited for the final countdown to begin. We start having our baby showers this coming week along with washing baby clothes, packing Westyn's bag and getting things in order for our adoption celebration afterwards...we need to keep our minds moving so all these things are greatly welcomed.

Please continue to keep our birthmother & child in our thoughts and prayers as each day she gets closer to delivery and each day we get closer to meeting our son, WESTYN!!!