Forever Family

  Posted on November 14, 2016 By

 39 Comments

We are officially a forever family of three.

According to the Government of the USA, our beautiful son is stuck with us and we are beyond ecstatic to be his forever parents.

The paperwork that says we are forever a family arrived this weekend. We even got an official certificate declaring Baby MPB part of the MPB family.  I don’t think the certificate has any legal meaning.  I’ll admit, I find the certificate really weird, what we are supposed to do with it?  Frame it?  I think we’ll just add it to the copious amount of adoption paperwork we have and just let it sit there for all eternity for Baby MPB to look at one day if he wants.

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Honestly, I wont lie, the actual date of the adoption finalization was rather anti-climatic because in our minds we were already a forever family. In fact, the moment I laid my eyes on our son, I knew we’d be a forever family.

As for the actual day, our lawyers forgot to call us to tell us the judge had signed the paperwork and his adoption was final.  I did eventually call them at 5pm, because I was starting to worry.  (This was oddly reminiscent of the relinquishment period ending when they forgot to call us to confirm that we were through that hurdle).  But, I doubt we’ll remember that in 20 years.  Instead, I think what we will remember is the tooth coming through that meant we were all exhausted and grumpy – you know, just like every other first time parent with a teething baby.  In many ways, this was perfect, because it was just like any other day, as life with a baby should be.

And so, while nothing has changed in our day-to-day life, it does mean it’s time to start doing more paperwork.  First up, Canadian Immigration.  Followed (in the order I think it will all be done in) by

  • Canadian Social Insurance number;
  • Amended birth certificate (I still find this odd;
  • Canadian passport;
  • USA Social Security number; and,
  • New USA passport.

Something tells me this will all take at least another year?  I think it’s all dependent on Canadian Immigration processing times and the amended birth certificate – both of which I have no idea how long they take to process.  Truthfully have no idea, some things will happen concurrently so maybe it will be quicker then I expect?  I have no-one to ask for processing times, so this is really just an uneducated guess.

And, so I guess what really matters as we are done with the adoption process.   Our USA agency can no longer charge us another surprise penny (we are still waiting for a final invoice, but now we are told it would be illegal for us to pay it as part of the adoption finalization is that the Judge approved our adoption expenses).  And so we will no longer face another adoption related bill. And, our USA agency can no longer hold anything over our heads, we are forever free of them.

So, really, the adoption finalization means that we can just focus on living and raising our son.  And that is pretty darn amazing!

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 Category: Adoption, Baby, Family      Tags: , , , , ,

39 Comments on “Forever Family”

  2. So happy for you! So, so happy!

    Now, make that kid a Canadian citizen so he can enter and leave other nations without having to claim his American status. 😉

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  9. Congratulations! I just submitted the adoption request / giant heap of paperwork to the Ontario family court today so my wife can adopt our daughter. I can’t wait for the day our adoption is finalized, but I suspect we will feel the same way – just another day as a family. So happy for you 😊

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  10. YAY!!!! I am so stinkin’ happy for you guys and I can’t wait for the day that we join you with finalization! Congratulations on making it through the longest process ever!!!! And Woohoo for no more fees from that stupid US agency!!!

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  14. Hooray!!! Congratulations!

    I will say I was surprised out how quickly my son’s SSN came after applying – I think it was less than a week! And I was sure the lady processing the paperwork messed something up as she had a lot of questions for her co-worker, took forever, and had never processed one for an adoption before. I was certainly pleasantly surprised and hopefully the last few things go smooth for you too 🙂 Congrats again!

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  18. Congratulations!
    You and your husband are such great people! You saved your son from God knows what kind of future!

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