[maybemomma]

Quick back-story: 19yo sister is pg and plans to put the baby up for adoption. She doesn't know that we may be interested in adopting it, but we're planning to talk to her while we're home for Christmas. We're trying to quickly gather info so that we know we're definitely going to do it if she agrees before we ask her and get everyone all excited (good or bad).

Well, I've talked to an agency, which is a pretty expensive way to go. It will be $6000 if she lives with us for about a month before L&D b/c she would deliver in the state we live in instead of her state. (Saves a lot of paperwork and additional legal fees.) The advantage to this method is that she and the father only have 72hrs after birth to change their minds.

We decided that we'd rather go through a lawyer. It's only $2000 that way, but the ones I've talked to will only do kinship adoptions in this situation meaning that the we are given temporary custody and power of attorney for the child for 12mos, and the adoption isn't finalized for those 12mos. Interpretation: Costs significantly less, but there's more time for something to go awry.

Any thoughts? I am meeting via phone with another lawyer tomorrow morning.

As a PS, we know that she needs to agree to all of this including living w/us prior to L&D, and we plan to get her counseling to make sure this is what she really wants to do.