I is for ICWA

 So we are trying to adopt Princess. Everything was going absolutely perfectly and smoothly towards it. Dad had already relinquished and mom did last month. In the process of filling out the adoption packet and the social background information when her dad mentioned 'oh by the way I think my grandma was full Indian. Maybe Cherokee or something like that.' Which mean I get to brush up on ICWA laws.

 ICWA stands for Indian Child Welfare Act and it really is a good thing. It makes sure that Native American children have extra rights to help ensure they are brought up in the same tribe. It is there to protect the rights of their Native American heritage. I think that's a great thing. I'm not so happy that it means that IF Princess does have a full blooded Native American ancestor (that can be proven) it means that the father might have to RE relinquish his rights or that it has the potential that she could be removed to be in a home with people from the same heritage. I know neither of her parents have ever gone to the reservation, other than to pick up fireworks a couple of times and they don't teach her any of her heritage. We do more of those things here than she ever would with her parents.

 Of course this is all hypothetical, apparently many many people claim Native American ancestry and majority of them say they are Cherokee. Honestly I though I had Cherokee history too until all this came up and I researched it. Nope. At least if I do not from anyone listed on any of the rolls which means there is a possibility but its not likely. So now the social worker had to send off letters to each of the tribe's office and they are supposed to answer her with in a week if this ancestor was actually considered to be part of their tribe. That would mean they'd have to be on the rolls. I was given the information and I searched and searched and couldn't find them so I'm not too worried. Its been 2 weeks now and social worker hasn't let me know (of course she's been on vacation for the last week so that could be part of it). For now we get to wait and see.