The Wheels Are Moving....

For the last several weeks we've felt like we were stuck in the mud, with our wheels spinning.

We've finally got some traction under those tires!

Completed Steps:

• Sent all information necessary to convert the home study to our agency
• Obtained an attorney experienced in foster-to-adopt cases
• Agency home study worker edited and completed the conversion and sent it to her supervisor for review
• Supervisor reviewed it.
• Conversion as sent to DFCS. (Yay! This really was the biggest hold-up. We were on the bottom of the figurative to-do pile on the DFCS caseworker's desk until she got that paperwork.)
• DFCS employee went to Social Security office to file for an SSN for M.

Still to go:

• DFCS caseworker to review our home study and approve it. Then she'll send it to her supervisor (the Director)
• Director to review our home study and approve it (CW tells us the Director is usually through this step "within about 2 weeks" but emphasizes that she can't promise that -- you never know what else can suddenly drop onto the Director's plate.)
• Appointment at DFCS office to sign final intent-to-adopt paperwork
• Get a court date (Should be less than 30 days out from above appointment)

In my fantasy world in which everything goes smoothly from here on out, the Director will get the files by early next week and complete their review by the end of October. Then we could go sign the paperwork in early November and get a hearing date by early December. Crossing our fingers...