Adoption B.B. v. R.K.B.

*4 INTRODUCTION

¶ 1 Contested adoptions are gut-wrenching, and the longer they remain in flux, the greater the toll on the biological parents, the prospective adoptive parents, family members, and, most significantly, the child. But no one is better off for "judicial shortcuts, intentional or unintentional, which reach an expeditious result but fail to recognize the fundamental nature of the right of [biological] parents to the care, custody, and management of their child." In re Adoption of L.D.S. , 155 P.3d 1 , 8 (Okla. 2006), as supplemented on reh'g , No. 250 (Mar. 6, 2007). "In fact, the…