Today was the FINAL step of our adoption! Whew, feels so good to say that, if you are in TX at 10:00 am you might have heard our joyous celebration! "Texas Administrative Code allows for a Texas court to authenticate the adoption papers of a child adopted from abroad. The adoptive parents can then submit a court order for the Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics to issue a “Certificate of Foreign Birth” for their child." Although our international adoption was finalized back in March, we decided to adopt Lottie in the Lone-Star State in order to make her life a little easier when it comes to legal documents. Now she has a Texas birth certificate in place of her Chinese birth certificate-no need for extra adoption paperwork, or lugging around the several documents and translations that prove her adoption. The resulting document looks similar to a Texas birth certificate but will not indicate Texas as the place of birth. Many families feel that obtaining a Texas certificate of foreign birth will be helpful for local purposes (school and sports enrollments, etc.) With her TX birth certificate, there are no questions, requests for more information, or hassles. "It appears that the key to this process is locating a judge who is willing to find “that all of the prerequisites of the law have been fully complied with by petitioners and that said order of adoption was and is legally valid and of full force and effect under the laws of the United States of America and of the State of Texas." Today we met with our lawyer & Judge Andrews at the Georgetown Municipal Court, and Lottie shining in her burnt orange and white we finalized this very last step! Tonight we plan on celebrating with some ice cream!
Congratulations ! That is so exciting!
ReplyDelete