Pre-Placement Visit #2

Today is Saturday, 25 July 2009. It's only been five days since our initial visit with Mayah. Needless to say, it's seemed like an eternity since Monday. Shayne and I continue to converse about the wonderful expectations we have as parents, the funny moments that we anticipate we'll share with Mayah, and most of all, the uneasy feeling that has made a home in the pits of each of our stomachs. It's the feeling of fear.

We learned on Thursday that Mayah's biological mother has a termination in September of this year. This means that if the Judge decides in September to terminate the parental rights, then Mayah will become an official foster child, placed with us, and free and clear to be adopted at the end of the statutory 6 month placement period. How great would that be? Conversely though, the Judge has the discretion to grant a continuance to allow the birth mother an additional opportunity to get her stuff straight, i.e., meet the conditions that have previously been set by the Judge. Naturally, this puts us in the weird position on wishing that the stars align themselves so that we get to fully adopt Mayah. But, as Christians, we don't want to find ourselves wishing any ill-will upon her mother. As you can imagine, it's very difficult to find the balance between the two.

Nonetheless, today we'll visit Mayah at 1pm. It's now 11:23am and I should actually be getting dressed. We'll pick her up from her foster mother and spend a few hours with her. We still aren't quite certain what we'll get into as the weather has been rather questionable. We've had a lot of rain lately and the grounds at the local parks may still be a bit wet. In addition, the heat index has been insufferable lately. We may find a restaurant, get a booth and just spend quality time over lite appetizers. Either way, what's important today is that Mayah get a chance to be with us in isolation so that she is comfortable with her future parents. (yeah, I am definitely claiming it and focusing on the positive result for which we yearn).

Until then...