One Step Closer

Today Lala's mother relinquished her parental rights and our open communication agreement was filed with the court. The actual court appearance took only five minutes... the waiting for the court appearance took over two hours. Seriously, I walked into a packed building and left an empty one. There was a lot of emotion in that hallway. Anger, sadness and happiness, all clashing into each other and fighting over the four chairs to sit on.

Why did I go? Partly to see that it actually happened - there's been a lot of postponements and delays and partly to be a witness to this monumental event in my daughter's life. Ten, fifteen years from now, when we're having one of those serious conversations that young teens always want to have I can describe how it all went down from a first hand account. I think that's important for her and I think it's important in my relationship with her birth mom. It probably won't ever be the most comfortable of relationships, but I know that in her way she does love Lala and wants the best for her.

With in the next few weeks, the case will get an adoption worker and leave the capable hands of the CW we've worked with for the last two years. (Jeez! I just realized that it has been two years since Lala came into my life) That's a little scary - obviously I want to move one, but fear of the unknown always lurks around.  How long until we hit the absolute end? Perhaps I should start a betting pool.