It is very hard to adopt in VA compared to other states.
Only adoption agencies are recognized by VA. I've seen in other posts where a & bparents use adoption facilitators and adoption lawyers. Facilitated adoption matches aren't recognized and lawyers only provided legal services. (I get so sad sometimes when I see pbmoms from VA listed on the facilitators sites, especially when the the pbmom wants a "very open relationship". The facilitators have to tell me by law I can't use them, but I wonder if they tell the pbmom they can't match them with VA paparents when signing up?) So either use a private agency where you do all the networking and advertising yourself (which we chose and have had little to no luck with) or a large agency that wants $20k or more upfront just to work with you. Like MkMk said, most of those actually take custody of the baby during the 10 days and don't emphasize openness as much as I would like.
VA has been working hard to make abortions easier, but seem to place little to no emphasis on making the adoption option known about.
For womens rights they want to be progressive, but for adoption they suddenly become conservative again!
As for the laws concerning relinquishment, the bparents cannot file paperwork with the court until the baby is a minimum 10 days old. Once it hits the docket, the bparents have another 15 days in which to change their mind. After the 15 days expire the bparents would have to prove fraud, coersion, etc to overturn. Then the normal 6 months finalization which includes follow-up (2?) visitations from the case worker.
On another note, to be so concerned with TPRing the bparents rights, they haven't been nearly so good about defining open adoption contracts.
If they are truely so concerned about the bparents then they need to start addressing the open adoption agreement to make bparents feel safer AFTER the adoption. Many state are now putting something, even if it's vague, on their books about open adoption agreements. Last I heard VA still isn't/won't address this issue.
Ok, guess I've had my vent now. Sorry so long. You've caught me on one of my "Is it ever going to happen?" phases. We all have them at some point during our wait.
