Family Trip- Part 1 (the background)

So... This last weekend our Family along with my Parents went on vacation to Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. The main purpose in going was because Jeremiah was finally accepted into his tribe and was able to get his Tribal Card. This was not as easy as that may sound. Where do I begin......

Well, Jeremiah was born in May of 1980. At the time he was pretty much like any newborn and life was just that simple. However (from what we've been told) over the course of the next 4 years Jeremiah and his "normal" family life got severely rocky. He started moving in and out of foster homes and went back and forth with him Mother until the state of Colorado finally took over custody of him and he was eventually adopted. The family that adopted him are the SUDYKAS. I feel that this drastic change is what would give him a fighting chance for his future. His family lived in Colorado for a while and would eventually settle down in Corvallis, Oregon. While growing up there Jeremiah discovered his ability to run... and I mean REALLY RUN. Because of this talent he was fortunate enough to receive scholarships for college in Cross Country. He would go on to attend and run for the College of Southern Idaho and Northern Idaho College. While attending school in Northern Idaho he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This decision eventually led him to a great many things... one of which was a lady in the church he was attending that LOVED doing family history. She was able to find out enough information and somehow located Jer's birth Mom Margarita (aka Margaret and Bambi). Jeremiah was given the opportunity from then on (like 2002) to have contact with her however he wanted. To this day he has yet to meet her, but does talk to her on a semi-regular basis....

So on to the whole tribal card stuff... We began filling out and submitting paperwork well over 3 years ago. We had to petition the Colorado courts to open his adoption records which took getting paperwork from Jer's parents in Oregon, having a "court appearance" over the phone with a judge and consent from Margarita. That was all finalized about 2 years ago and we were able to obtain an original PRE-adoption birth certificate as well as the other POST-adoption paperwork necessary for application for Tribal Membership. After the application is submitted and processed then it goes through a series of approvals on the Reservation. After 2 years of waiting for the next step to be approved Jeremiah's application was finally placed in front of the Tribe's Council of Elders for approval/dismissal. At the start of the summer we heard back from the Reservation that he was indeed APPROVED, but could only obtain his card IN PERSON. So that was why we scheduled and arranged for this trip... More postings to come.