I have detailed in a number of blogs what turned out to be a fight for Isaiah. He came to our house on a “foster to adopt” basis because we already had adopted his four older maternal brothers.
His birth mother had been encouraged by a movie (Losing Isaiah) to fight for his custody. She finally decided, during court ordered mediation, to sign a relinquishment of her parental rights. We agreed to send her, through an intermediary to protect our identity, pictures and a narrative of all five boys every six months. We had a “goodbye visit” with her and it was uneventful.
All we had to do from that time was wait. Things always seem to take longer than they should have to with CPS and the court system. This case was no exception. Isaiah came to live with us on July 12, 2004. Lola signed off on July 22, 2005. The adoption was finalized on January 19, 2006.
We decided that it was very important to take all of the boys to the courthouse in downtown Houston for Isaiah’s adoption. We thought about it a lot because there were a lot of practical reasons not to take them. Under normal circumstances, it takes less than an hour to drive from our home to downtown Houston. Because we had to be there at nine o’clock in the morning on a weekday, we had to be in the car and moving by seven. It’s not easy to have five young children fed and dressed by then.
The overriding reason that we took all of them was to plant in their memory that Isaiah was adopted and that they had been adopted in the same way over a year before. Three of the four were young enough the first time that they didn’t remember what happened very well. We wanted to reinforce their memory. On the drive to town, we told all of them several times exactly what was happening.
The finalization was quick. Nancy and I answered a few questions from our lawyer and the judge. After two adoptions and umpteen hearings, the judge knew us fairly well. She signed the order in front of us and Isaiah was legally our son.
The thirty or so lawyers, court personnel, social workers, and interested parties in other proceedings applauded. We had a picture taken with the judge. She asked when, not if, we were coming back. We smiled and told her that our family was finally complete.