Well, we may be out of luck then because I don't see how we can afford to hire an attorney on top of all the other adoption costs. If DES hasn't been able to find the guy after all these years (they've been looking for him since I was pregnant, as I had to be on state aid at the time and several times since then), I don't know why we'd need to bother with an attorney. What can an attorney do at this point?
I also don't know why DES would tell me it would be uncontested. You'd think they'd know the laws.
Well, as far as the publication, I have several family members who work for the Arizona Republic, and they get a discount for ads, so I can probably go that route. A friend told me she did that and they only had to wait 30 days for her son's father to respond (and the guy never did). I don't know if that's still how it works, but it would sure be cheaper than hiring an attorney, lol.