Meeting Our Lawyer

About two weeks ago, the receptionist from our lawyer's office called. She told us that they had paperwork that we needed to sign. In order to file for a court date, these papers needed to be signed and the paperwork from our agency needed to arrived at our lawyer's office. Of course, we wanted to get our part completed ASAP. So, we set-up a time to to meet with our lawyer for the second time this past Wednesday. The meeting itself didn't go as planned. We read of the all of the paperwork checking for typos. I have to admit that it was strange seeing Baby C's name typed especially since it had her BM's last name as her last. All of the paperwork was fine though.

I asked our lawyer to again explain the next steps. He told me again that he needed the agency's paperwork. We figured that the agency would get their part done in the days following since our last post-placement visit was the next day, Thursday. He went on to say that he would then file the paperwork and we should expect it to take one month. I immediately said "One month until our court date? Or, one month until we hear back?" He went on to say that it would be around one month until we hear about our court date and perhaps one to two more months until the court date. We were we in SHOCK. I was actually very upset. His receptionist told me that it would take 2-4weeks until we went to court when I called the first time to set-up the first appointment.

The bad news didn't stop there. He went on to mention his fee. Again, his receptionist told me a number. A great number. That's one of the reasons we went with his firm. His number Wednesday wasn't sooo great. It had actually doubled. He left the room to get our fee sheet and my DH and I lost it. He may have overheard us or just felt bad... But, something changed. When he walked back in the conference room he took off $500 the fee he had just given us because the process was a lot easier for him than normal (he has never done a private agency, domestic adoption---I believe he has only completed foster-to-adopt finalizations). Great, $500 off but it was still $250 higher than our orginal quoted fee. Whatever it takes though!

We shouldn't have to meet with him again until the court date itself. We hope that his timetable is wrong and that we hear from him sooner than later. If we can't get a court date within thirty days we will have to have another post-placement visit. And, we will have to continue those for every thirty days until finalization.
Did I mention that we have to pay mileage for our post-placement visits since we live over a certain distance from our agnecy? Grr..

Fingers crossed!