As my dad would say, Kaylee is still doesn't have any parents.  Our court hearing to finalize Kaylee's adoption was on Monday.  Tim and I attended court over the phone.  Our attorney and our case worker were physically in court.  Tim and I testified and then the judge asked our attorney some questions.  The result was that Kaylee's adoption was NOT finalized due to lack of correct paperwork.  Instead, court was recessed.  

In the birth parents' consent to relinquish their parental rights there is supposed to be a paragraph that states the birth parent also relinquishes the right to be notified of the hearing for finalization.  If this isn't included in the consent then the birth parent must be notified of the hearing.  The judge asked our attorney where in the consent he could find this relinquishment or if the birth parents had been notified of the hearing. Our attorney stated that the birthparents hadn't been informed of the hearing and that he did not know if/where the consent talked about their relinquishment to be notified.  After court, our case worker looked through the paperwork and pointed out to the attorney that this relinquishment was included.  That was a relief, because Kaylee's birth father is unreachable and I'm not sure how we would ever find him again.  Unfortunately, this wasn't the only thing wrong with the paperwork.  Our attorney had crossed out some of Kaylee's birth mother's consent.  There is a portion of the paperwork that states the birthmother has the right to reverse her consent by contacting the attorney, the agency, or the court before the hearing.  For some reason our attorney crossed out "the court".  This opened up the possibility of Kaylee's adoption being contested in the future.  The judge said he wanted to make sure there weren't any holes in our adoption before he approved the finalization.  

Needless to say, Tim and I are not very happy with our attorney.  Tim and I don't have to appear in court again.  Our attorney just have to fix his mistakes and present the corrected paperwork to the court.  I'm a bit upset that we have to drag Kaylee's birth mother into this again.  It's hard enough to sign a consent to relinquish parental rights the first time and now she has to relive that.  She was a good sport about it, but I still feel like it is pretty unfair to her.  As of Friday, the addendum was signed and the attorney was going to file it with the court.  We'll see how things play out from here. 

On Monday Kaylee got her helmet.  She has plagiocephaly (flat head), so Tim and I decided since our insurance would pay for it, we might as well get a helmet for her.  (She'll probably appreciate it when she's 15.)  She is not fond of the helmet.  She has been working up to wearing it 23 hours a day.  Yesterday was the first day that she was wearing it full time.  Her head gets so hot and sweaty in it.  I'm sure she'll be relieved to get back to cooler Alaska.

On Friday, Tim and I sold our car, packed our bags, and left Rexburg.  Tim's parents were kind enough to drive up to Rexburg and get us since we sold our car.  We will be spending the next few days with them before we head back up to Alaska.

We have really enjoyed spending the last couple of months with family and friends.  We are also excited to get back to Dillingham and move into our new apartment.

The first few days of this week were spent playing with the Andersons.  Rigdon sure likes Kaylee and she likes him too.  It's been so fun to watch him sit by her, show her toys, make faces at her, and give her hugs and kisses.  All of the Anderson kids have taken several times holding "it".  Yvonne can't seem to convince them that Kaylee is a her not an it.  They do know her name though.

I was able to pull Tim away from his homework for a couple hours on Thursday afternoon so we could go on a date.  We went to the movie theater to see Star Trek.  Go to the movies might not seem like that big of a deal to most people, but keep in mind that the nearest movie theater to our house in 400 miles away and requires air travel to reach it. 

The Blacks came up on Friday so that they could do the Hurdle for Hope race with us on Saturday.  Matt, Yvonne, Spencer, the entire Black family, and I ran in the race.  I think the idea was to all stay together, but that only last about 1.2 seconds.  Jay and Ethan stayed together and Yvonne, Lisa, and Alex stayed together but other than that we were pretty spread out.  Anthony ended up doing the 3K race instead of the 5K, but he came in third place.  The race involved climbing over hay pales, running through a river, jumping through tires, climbing walls, jumping over hurdles, trudging through mud, and jumping over fire.  It was a pretty fun race.  I'll do it again next year if I'm around for it.

Saturday afternoon the Blacks, Andersons, Spencer, Kaylee, and I just hung out at the Andersons.  Matt got out is 4-wheeler and the adults took turns giving the kids rides around the field.  I felt like I was back in Togiak riding on a 4-wheeler with 4 kids on there with me.

Tomorrow is a big day for Kaylee.  She gets her helmet in the morning and then we attend her court hearing to finalize her adoption.  Wish us luck!  After tomorrow she's stuck with us for good.

This past week has been filled with more traveling, more family, and more fun.  Tim worked diligently on his homework for the first half of the week in preparation for our upcoming family reunion.  I probably could have worked harder to be more organized and prepared for our reunion, but managed to keep pretty busy with seeing more friends, car appointments, and other errands. 

Mom, Tim, Kaylee, and I left Rexburg on the morning of the July 4th to head down to Utah.  Our ultimate stop was American Fork canyon for the Lee Family reunion, but we took a few stops before that.  I was a little sad to be missing the 4th of July celebrations especially as we saw everyone gathering for the Rexburg parade as we left town. 

We stopped at the Black’s house for a brief visit and then went to the Wadman’s house (Tim’s cousins) for lunch and to see the rest of his family.  We were able to stay for a couple hours before we headed to the campground.  Tim and I offered to let my mom stay in our tent and we camped in the van.  I think we got the better end of the deal.  Both nights we were there it rained and, unlike some of the other campers, Tim and I stayed very dry.  It was good to see so many of our Lee relatives again and spend time with them.  Kaylee did pretty well on her first camping trip.  I wasn’t really sure how naptime would work, but she did great in her car seat under a shady tree.

Saturday night we were able to join a bunch of my siblings for dinner at the Bombay House to celebrate my mom’s birthday.  It is fun having all adult siblings.  I enjoy their company.  We spent the might at Gus’ house and then in the morning headed to the Salt Lake airport to pick up my sister, Yvonne, and her family.  They are moving back to the United States after living in the Middle East for 3 years.  It was really good to see them again. 

Tim and I are now down to the last two weeks of our vacation.  It has gone by extremely quickly.  I hope we’re able to fit in all sorts of fun in our last few days.