The coronavirus may have closed the courts, but that didn’t stop an Ohio couple from finalizing their adoption.
Casey and Laura Wieck had been waiting months to finalize the adoption of their six-month-old baby James, and managed to do so via Zoom.
“There’s always this thing hanging over your shoulder: What if this doesn’t happen? What if something goes wrong?” Laura Wieck said in an interview with TODAY Parents. “You just want to get to that point to where everything is finalized and legal. That unknown and that waiting — you feel it.”
On March 31, the excited mother took to Instagram to share the exciting news that the adoption has been finalized over the videoconferencing tool.
“It’s finally official!!” she wrote. “We are especially grateful for @adoptionlinkinc and all your support in this process. Thank you for allowing us to have a ‘virtual’ hearing to get this finalized. We have been awaiting this moment for months!”
The couple was even accompanied by their families as the adoption became official, as they all joined in on the Zoom call.
“We’re affectionately referring to it as ‘cyber court,’” Judge Thomas O’Diam, who completed the adoption, told TODAY Parents. “My clerks are all at their individual houses working remotely. … It just makes us feel good that we’re able to continue and give some sense of normalcy to people when it seems like nothing else is normal.”
This is the third virtual adoption that O’Diam has completed since self-isolation began across the country, and he has many more to come.
It’s amazing to see these heartwarming stories during this difficult time, and we can only imagine the relief and excitement this is bringing to these families!
