This afternoon's hearing went pretty well, but it isn't final. Since we still have to deal with an issue of terminating the parentage of the possible unknown father -- the fact that we have a DNA paternity test is not sufficient in this case -- and that cannot be done until the legal notice has run for 30 days, which won't happen until mid August.
Therefore, we will have one more hearing on September 4. The extra couple of weeks were because of the Judge's case load and, if I recall, his vacation.
While we thought that the judge was being needless picky at the initial hearing, it has been shown that he is just being very diligent and through with the law, and it sounds like there should be no trouble adopting once Derrick is adoptable. At this point we have one of the 4 potential parents who has not been legally released (I'm blanking the exact terms). {Yes, I said 4 parents: the mother, the presumed father -- Tara's brother -- the mother's husband at the time, and the possible unknown father} Once the court is able to deal with the possible unknown father, the judge basically said that he sees no reason that he won't be able to grant the adoption.
We will have to be in court on September 4, so we are flying back on September 3. Since I didn't feel comfortable trying to leave late on the 3rd in case things dragged into the afternoon, and September 5 is a Friday, we aren't actually heading back to San Diego until the following Sunday. We will probably be staying in Rockford with my in-laws instead of getting a hotel room near here. However, we may be available sometime that weekend.
