Legal Fun

Right now we are eyes deep in legal papers to have the state of Missouri legally recognize Sophie's adoption. Since she was adopted in Viet Nam, Missouri does not formally accept that when it comes to Sophie being an heir. So, in lieu of going through re-adopting her, there was a new law that allows internationally adopted children to be recognized by the state and serves the same purpose as a re-adoption..HMMM!! Yes there are some smart things our government here in Missouri does!

There is, yes you guessed it, more paperwork to complete, filing a petition with the family court, supplying them with proof of adoption, her birth certificate, proof of immigration and citizenship, and expenses, yaada, yaada. Amongst all of the recognition of adoption papers is the section in there to legally change her name to Sophie Lee-Nguyen Belz. Everything we do when it involves doctors, school papers, etc uses her birth name, since technically and legally that IS here name, but to everyone else she is Sophie.

All of this recognition of adoption/name change stuff CAN be done without an attorney, but we have one helping us out pro bono which is nice. If anyone is in Missouri who would like info please let us know. So we have to have a few notarisations and then our attorney will file the petition on our behalf next week sometime at the court house. He is going to try and push up our court date. Right now we are looking at 6-8 weeks to get in front of the judge. With the waiting that we had to do, that really is not much but we want to get everything all wrapped up and out of the way.

Look this weekend for pix and more from Sophie's trip to South Carolina! But to hold you over, here is one...

Feeding the Lorikeets at the Riverbanks Zoo.