Hi Everyone! I'm caught between excitement and fear here! We got the court papers today. By email. I'm going to post the email from the attorney:

Hey there – here’s the agreed order – BM has signed it – if it looks good to you and you return the fourth and fifth page signed it will be done. If you have any suggestions for corrections just let me know and I will ask BM if she’s good with them too and we can make changes if you two can agree on them.

Also – I know you are wanting Laughter to adopt SS9 and SS9. I can’t specifically put that into the Order – it’s the same as saying “I hereby give up my rights to my child” – and that’s legally unenforceable and a judge will not sign off on it (it’s akin to making an illegal contract). However, BM agrees she will not object to the adoption, and once a parent hasn’t either paid support or visited with a child for a year you can apply for an adoption. BM will agree to the adoption.

She also though wants to make sure that you will allow SD3 to be adopted if and when she ever finds someone suitable to do so. She currently is not in that position so that is nothing you all will be facing at anytime in the near future. I told her that you two had told me that was alright with you, as long as she did not object to Laughter adopting the boys. That is however an informal agreement you can only enforce between the two of you – no court can make you stick to that bargain.

Take care and hopefully this will all be over soon. Once the Order is agreed to by everyone and signed off on – I can have it filed the next day. Take care.
Attorney

Okay, so the last line was a hint to us. Attorney never liked BM.
The court papers give DH full custody of SS's and no visitation of SD and BM full custody of SD and no visitation of SS's. Both parties are to be held responsible for all past and future costs of SK's.

Now, don't worry about what you have read. Everything is not what it seems and for those of you on myspace, send me a message and I will tell you why.

My, er DH's, response to the email was:

Hi Attorney,

There are 3 points that we are concerned with. The first point is where the order states that Respondent shall be responsible for all past and future costs associated with the minor children SS9 and SS8. I do not agree to being responsible for all past costs as I am sure BM will find some way to extract money from me. I would agree to being responsible from the date the judge signs and beyond. Also, SS8 Birthday is ABCD 00,1999, please make that change.

Secondly, I would like a signed and notarized statement from BM agreeing not to object to the adoption. We will also need a point of contact for her to sign the adoption papers.

Thirdly, we would like to revise the papers giving both Laughter and I custody, as Laughter is going to adopt them, I see no reason why BM should disagree.

We would like this done quickly and are not trying to delay the process, so we are asking that only these few things be changed. As soon as they are, and BM agrees to them, we will sign as well. Thank you for your time. I know this has been a trying case for you, but we appreciate all you have done.

DH

So, what do you think? Sound good? Now you can see why I'm tettering on the edge of fear here, we may lose the ground we have gained, but this has to be excuted right, or we could lose more.