Ok so here’s the story : We recently found out about an 18 month old baby girl that is soon to be up for adoption through a friend of a friend. Great aunt has custody of her (because she was taken by DCS). She took custody because she didn’t want her potentially bouncing around from foster home to foster home until her mom got her back. However, it’s been a year and mom has made no effort to work her parenting plan and is now willing to terminate her rights. Great aunt that has custody does not want to raise her as she is in her 60’s and doesn’t feel raising her on her own at her age is the best thing for her long term. Adoption has been on my husband and I’s heart for about a year now and when we were asked about potentially adopting this sweet girl out answer was, without hesitation, YES! The process is going to take some time as we are not foster certified and we haven’t done a home study yet, BUT we are so excited! Has anyone in this group had a similar situation? Any advice for us? How long did it take for the adoption to be finalized? And then there’s the question of her name. Is it inappropriate to change her name? I think we’re gonna keep her middle name. Which is actually what her aunt has called her since she got custody. But her name is long and difficult to pronounce and she doesn’t go by it so we were thinking about changing it and starting to call her by the name we want to change it to. Thoughts on that? Any and all advice is appreciated!