Next step...

We found out on Thursday that our birth father did not register on the OPFR so we are good to go with setting a court date!!

What is the OPFR you might ask? The OPFR is an Ohio Punitive Father Registry. It is a registry located in Columbus Ohio were men are to register their "encounters" with women if they feel a child may have been conceived during your union. This registry is then used by adoption agencies to seek out birth fathers during the adoption process. Not too many men know about this registry it turns out, and you must physically go to Columbus to sign it, you can't do it over the Internet or via fax. I had never even heard of this registry until we started this process. Dr. Phil did a show about it once, I didn't see it, but read the transcript on line.

Good news for us! He didn't sign it! So, we are full steam ahead! I will post when we have our date in court set!!

Tomorrow evening we will be attending an adoption picnic in our area to meet and get connected with other families in our area that have adopted. We are really looking forward to it!!

A few other updates:
* Joel is done with school! He is officially a 4th grader now! HOLY CRAP!
* Aliya is now saying, "mamamama" in addition to "bababab" that she's been saying for a while now!