Is the adoption for sure yet?

Almost, most likely, yes.

The key ingredients in this all wrapping up:

A. The birth mother relinquishing her parenting rights by signing a form. (done)

B. The birth mother must make a communication agreement with us and sign it. (done)

C. Amara (the adoption agency) must file these (A+B) in court (Happening Thursday, or early next week) which terminates her parental rights.

D. Amara must publish, in the legal notices of a local paper (one so small we've never heard of it) that it intends to sever the father's rights if he doesn't come forward. This takes about a month (Amara has never had a father reply).

E. Amara the files to terminate the father's rights. At this point, Katelynn will be completely in the custody of Amara.

F. This summer, we'll go before a judge and finalize the adoption.. Katelynn will be reissued a new birth certificate with "FitzGerald" as the last name. (The only way we can screw this up is to commit a crime in the next few months so significant it lands us on the front page of the paper)

The biggest variable, by far, is the birth mother changing her mind before her rights are terminated. All of the paperwork is complete for that process, and it will be finalized in the next few days.

So we're about to cross the big finish line, but not the final one. It's hard to wait, but this feels like everything is coming together...