We finally found someone to do the home study for us. She charges $1000!! But it will be money well spent. We have to have 6 refrences...3 that are family and I have 3 kids so they are all going to fill one out. She seemed to prefer my kids over my parents or other family members.

We all 3 have to have physicals. Also have to have certificates on our animals for rabies.

We haven't gotten a bill from our lawyer yet. I am dreading that!

Got the bill yesterday and it was $1200. Way less than I expected! Mary Jayne & I got our physicals yesterday and my husband will today. We got our sex offender & background check back yesterday and the secretary told me we were as good as they come. Thursday will be our home study. I will be glad to have all this over with!

We are finally ready to set a court date. Next week I think. I will be so glad to finally get all this over with! Mary Jayne's birthday was last week and her mom, gramma & uncle called. I only spoke to the uncle & let him talk to her. She had no clue who he is. I don't think she has seen him in over a year. I didn't answer the other two calls. I just let the machine pick it up. The gramma wanted to know " Mary Jayne is probably settled in now (mind you she hasn't had any contact with her in a year) and I am ready to come get her so she can spend the weekends with us". My husband had gone out to their house (he said it reeked like pot really bad out there) when we found out things were bad with Mary Jayne's mom and they pretty much told him we don't have any money to do anything so you are going to have to be the one to do something. I told him why didn't they call the DHS or someone to let them know things in Mary Jayne's life were not so good. We had not seen Mary Jayne in a couple of months (the mom was mad at us for some reason or other) and I just couldn't believe a mom wouldn't step in and do something for her grandaughters. One of my girls went through a rough time and I am not ashamed to say that I did call the DHS two different times because of the condition she had our grandaughter in. Anyway, I just didn't answer the phone for either one of them. They both just want to argue about what happened in the past and bring up stuff that I have a hard time thinking about. Usually they say this is all your sons fault and I am like, he has been dead for 3 years...how can it be his fault!

Ok, enough griping! The lawyer says we should incur another 2 or 3 thousand. I paid him another $500 yesterday when we saw him. But it is all worth it.

We finally have a court date. The 4th at 11:00. It seems like it has been an incredibly long journey! Looking forward to the end of this ordeal so we can get back to normal life whatever that is!

Yeah, we finally made it to the end! It took about 10 minutes in the judges chambers. We are officially parents again!

I found out a day after we adopted Mary Jayne that her mom and the father of her little sister both got arrested the day before we adopted Mary Jayne. The mom was drunk and fighting with the dad at her house and called the police and when they came to ask the dad to leave she freaked out and punched holes in the walls and got mouthy with the police so they arrested both of them. I guess I knew we were doing the right thing in adopting Mary Jayne, but this made me realize how much she needed us. Mary Jayne would have been right in the middle of all that.

School started on the 11th and Mary Jayne was so happy. She has missed her friends so much over the summer.

One of the bad things about small town life is that everyone knows everyone. The mom has gotten 3 DUIs in the last month. One of the times she got a DUI...DUS (driving under suspended licence) carrying a firearm under the influence and she had drugs in her vechicle. I am so thankful Mary Jayne doesn't have to live with her anymore....

I have been following this thread on and off, just curious to see how everything turned out and I must say I feel relieved that this little girl is staying with you for good. Congrats to the new parents!

Thanks! She is doing very good. She had a good Christmas and can't wait for school to start back.