Exciting Developments :)

As many of my friends and family sit tonight watching Election 2012 coverage, some celebrating and some mourning, I thought I would change the subject to something much more interesting and exciting - Baby V :).

Recently my job transferred me to the airport location here in Las Vegas, and with that new location I have started working nights - 2 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. With the change in schedule, I also no longer have Saturdays and Sundays off, but instead get to enjoy being off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (at least for the next 4 weeks until shift changes happen again). Today, as Jeremy and I were preparing to go cast our votes, we received a call from Baby V's caseworker, asking if she could come within the next hour to do her monthly visit to see Baby V. We of course were willing and ready for her, and both were curious as to what information she would give us concerning Baby V's mom, who hasn't seen her daughter in more than a month now. Here's the update we got:

• Baby V's mom has officially had her visits with Baby V cancelled - According to the caseworker, the visitation staff were fed up with her never showing for her visits and took her off the schedule all together. We weren't surprised, considering how long it's been since she has actually shown for a visit.
• Bio mom (aka Baby V's mom) has had no contact with the Department of Family Services for quite some time now - Baby V's caseworker told us today that bio mom's phone number is no longer working and they have no idea where she is, what she's doing, and what her intentions are for getting Baby V back
• The state thinks they have located Baby V's dad - Or shall I say they thought they had found him until I gave them some important information today. You see, bio mom told me at one of our visits that the man she sees as Baby V's dad is Hispanic. You all have seen pictures of Baby V - that girl doesn't have one ounce of Hispanic in her. Bio mom recognized that as well, and told me that she and "dad" had separated for a short time around the time Baby V was conceived, but that she also couldn't remember "being with anyone white around that time." Yeah, you read that right. Long story short, we believe the man the state has located is the Hispanic man, but they haven't met him yet so they were not aware of his ethnicity (and his obvious non-relation to Baby V) until we told the caseworker about it today. In a normal family situation it wouldn't make a big difference what ethnicity a parent was, even if they weren't blood, as long as they were willing to BE a parent. When a child is in the care of the state, however, it makes a HUGE difference. That man, essentially, has NO rights to Baby V.
• Normally there would be a court hearing once Baby V has been in care for 6 months to assess bio mom's progress - The key word here is normally. We were told today that it's pretty standard to have a 6-month court hearing for the bio parents to see how they are doing with whatever plans have been set in place for them to get their child back. My understanding is that bio parents have from month 6 until month 10 to get their act together and show they are making a good effort in changing. If by month 10 they just aren't getting it, the state can file for a termination of parental rights.
• Because Baby V's mom seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, her caseworker is planning to make a request to the court to move up the 6 month/10 month hearings (not sure to when, but sooner rather than later) - In the long run, what this means is that the state is planning on making a case against bio mom to show they have made every reasonable effort to work with her to get Baby V back, but bio mom is simply not willing to work with them any longer. If the court agrees, the state can file to have bio mom's parental rights terminated before that 10 month mark, which would make Baby V's case turn into an adoption case.
• Baby V's caseworker has noted Jeremy and I as an adoptive resource for Baby V - This is the most exciting part!!! This means that if Baby V becomes available for adoption (which seems highly likely) we may very well be the ones who get to adopt her!!!!!!!!!!!! We had originally been told - by bio mom - that the family who has Baby V's half siblings had said they would adopt her if her parental rights were terminated, but according to the caseworker, that family has NOT expressed any interest in adopting her, which puts us first in line from what we understand!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Ok, I know that was long, so I'll try to be brief with the rest of this, lol. After today's visit with the caseworker, we are pretty confident that Baby V is going to be with us for quite awhile, and very possibly, she may get to be with us permanently. The caseworker told us today that she can see that Baby V has bonded with us, which totally warmed my heart :). I love that others can see that this precious little girl loves us just as much as we love her, and we love that if adoption is in Baby V's future, we stand a really good chance at becoming her forever family :). Now that's something to celebrate!