Newborn adoption and a friendly hello

Crystal - posted on 04/05/2010 ( 4 moms have responded )

The last two weeks have been quite a ride...... let me start by first introducing my self since I am new here.

My names Crystal, I'm 25 years old happily married for the last 6 years to the sweetest man I've ever met Steven who is 33. We have two beautiful biological children Alexis age 5 and Connor age 4. They are 12 months apart. After my son I had a bout of cervical cancer and the doctor told us it would be very risky to have anymore children. So my husband had a vesectomy to avoid any future pregnancies after we weighed out the risks. We always talked about adoption and figured the time would come someday when we could. We just never thought it would happen quite the way it has.

A week and a half ago I got a phone call while at my shop (we own a small Antique shop in Central Maine) that has officially changed our lives forever. My aunt had this young woman living with her for awhile and she got into some trouble after becoming pregnant in CA (where the father of the child is now serving a lengthy sentence in Prison) She has spent her entire pregnancy in Jail. 2 weeks ago she got extradited back to Maine because of probation here. She is taking a plea to serve 22 months in prison for her crime. The entire situation came as quite a shock to our systems. We thought about it for 2 days weighing out pro's and con's. Finally making a decision due to the situation she was due a week ago and still holding steady we had to make a decision fast.

The State child protective agency got involved because she is incarcerated, so we had a emergency home study done and background checks. We were approved and the case was closed immediately so we could handle this as a private adoption. We have a lawyer who has been wonderful in aiding us but we have so many questions that nobody seems to have the answer too.

We are planning an open adoption, we agreed to keep the name she has chosen Xariah (zah-re-ah) Jane and also agreed to send pictures on a regular basis. We hope that once the birth mother get's her life straight we will all be able to meet and establish a life long relationship.

Here's what I know
Xariah is now a week over due, she goes back to see the doctor in the morning. They are likely going to plan an induction for later this week. My lawyer has suggested that the birth mother sign over temp guardianship (but must write with pending legal guadianship, pending adoption) and than we can go for full guardianship and adoption. We are kind of lost in this process.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation??

Crystal