God is good!

We have some fantastic news!

Maggie's birth mother has contacted CPS and wishes to relinquish her parental rights! We are in shock. We seriously thought that we'd be battling this in court on March 16th. She has been discussing this with CPS for about 3 weeks now. We are unsure as to why she has finally decided this, but at this point, we're just thankful.

Now, we are still waiting. Apparently CPS and the birth mom have been waiting on papers from the attorneys, but of course, they haven't been able to get in touch with them. The good news is that mediation is still scheduled for next Wednesday at 1:30pm. So, if papers aren't signed by then, they will be signed next week. We still need to go to court on March 16th as a formality to enter all of the documents into the system. Once that has been done, our current CPS caseworker will pass along our file to the adoption caseworker, who "just happens" to be our initial caseworker. This is great news because she is fully aware of the case and our sitaution and wants to push this through as quickly as possible. And by quickly as possible, we are still looking at a fall adoption court date (that's just how long it's taking to get on the judges' calendar these days!)

There is some negotiation that has to take place, as Maggie's birth mom has requested for future contact. We're not comfortable with what she has requested, so would you just pray that we'll be able to come to agreement on things and that she won't allow this to be an issue when signing the relinquishment papers?

The end of this part of our journey sure seems to be coming to an end and we couldn't be more thrilled. We appreciate all of your love and support through everything. Keep praying and stay posted!