This Christmas Is Not Bliss-Less

Hope everyone has a safe holiday season!

Relinquishment

Yesterday was a big day for us. I took Gus' birth parents to Adoption Connection to sign the relinquishment papers. I thought it would only take a few minutes but it ended up taking over an hour. Apparently there are a lot of papers to sign and they have to do it in triplicate. Before they signed I noticed our conversation was awkward with lots of silences. After they signed off however, everyone was more relaxed and started joking around. I guess the big elephant in the room was finally gone.Thus after two and a half weeks of caring for the little poop machine, he's officially in Limbo! Meaning his birth parents no longer have any rights to him and at the same time he isn't technically our son... Yet. We have to wait 6 months before the adoption is finalized. During that time there will be a couple visits from a social worker to see if we are in fact taking good care of him.

oh, his umbilical cord finally fell off! It's totally disgusting. I mean, it's a beautiful example of nature at its most miraculous.

Itty Bitty Kitty Committee

But seriously folks...

Just because we have a new baby in the house doesn't mean our adoption journey is over. Far from it in fact. Even though Gus is in our care, his birth parents haven't yet signed the relinquishment papers. It is Adoption Connection's policy to let them be of sound mind to sign off. That means they have to be out of the hospital for a couple days first. They will then meet with a counselor to see if their choice is in fact one they definitely want to make. It's a little bit nerve-wracking for us since they could change their minds but they have assured us this is the road they want to take. We have been using this time to get to know them a little bit. We've seen them twice since taking Gus home and they seem to really mostly be concerned for Gus' well being. I'm always nervous before we see them because I fear they will think we're doing a bad job but the truth is, I think they have an equal amount of fear. Maybe it's because they think we might change OUR minds, or that we might judge them for deciding on an adoption plan.So here we have this perfect little baby who will have no shortage of love from us and even though his birth parents decided on adoption, it was because they also loved him too much to be raised in their situation. Whatever I used to think about adoption, I now know that it is a profound event surrounded by love.