Could this really finally happen?

Our agency case manager came out for her monthly visit yesterday afternoon.  Sweet Pea was very hesitant with her.  She tends to take a while to warm up to visitors or new situations and this was no exception.  I'm sure every time someone else comes in the house, she's wondering "Now what does this person want me to do?"  With all the therapists and all the doctors she's seen, it's no wonder she's reluctant.  She has to look at me or touch me just to make sure everything is okay.

The visit went well.  Court is only about a month away now.  We have a permanency review hearing (basically just a check in) on July 13th, then termination of parental rights is scheduled for the 21st.  In light of Sweet Pea's bio parents lack of progress (or actually backsliding) it's looking like termination could actually happen as planned.  When our case manager heard about recent events in the case, her exact words were, "Well, that pretty much cinches termination then, doesn't it?"  So our conversation yesterday was a lot of *when* adoption happens, not *if*, which is amazing to think we might actually get there.  She explained that if parental termination happens as scheduled, CPS has a rule that any biological relatives have 90 days to come forward.  She said most likely Sweet Pea's attorney will petition to waive the 90 days, so we could possibly move into the adoption phase right away.  She said it could all go through as quickly as a month or two.  I never imagined it could happen that fast.  We could actually have Sweet Pea adopted as soon as the end of the summer or early fall.  Crazy.

I am thrilled with this news, but also still feel like I need to try to keep myself as guarded as I can.  It feels like this has all gone so smoothly, like I need to wait for the other shoe to drop.  They just gave us this beautiful little baby four and a half months ago who we've fallen completely in love with and has attached easily to us.  While she's still technically a foster child, we've never had to deal with visitation from any bio family or any other typically CPS hassles.  Hell, we've never even had a visit from licensing.  And now they say she could be ours to keep in a just a relatively short amount of time.  Maybe I'm just used to things not going so smoothly for us where babies are concerned.  Maybe I'm just used to imagining the worst so that I can be prepared if it happens, but then pleasantly surprised if it doesn't.  Maybe, just maybe, we've already had all our bad fortune and now it's finally our turn for pure happiness and joy.  Could we actually be that lucky?