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Originally Posted By Lynda

I really hope that someone can give me some advice.
My nieghbor has a cousin who's children now age 2 & 5 were taken away by the state of Florida and are currently in foster care and are free to be adopted. The 2 year old was taken away at birth and both of the girls are in seperate homes and have never lived together.

My neighbor is a working single mom and interested in adopting just the 5 year old and my husband and I would very much like to adopt the 2 year old. She is a special needs child and I'm a stay at home mom and we feel we can provide the best care for her.

The problem is that the social workers are trying to talk my neighbor into adopting both of the children, because of the fact that she is a relative they say that she will have a better chance of getting them. We are in NY state so at this time me are dealing with 2 different states.

The children have a state appointed guardian that seems to be pushing to place them both together in Florida in the same home. Most of the girls family is in New York state so if they were here they would be in constant contact with there biological relatives. Something my husband and I feel is very important.

We were told by social services in Florida that there was no need for us to have a lawyer but it seems that there is no one to speak for us when it comes to court. Meaning the judge will only hear what ever social services and the guardian place before him/her.

My neighbor had suggested that maybe we should just go through with just her adopting them and once the girls are in NY that she could turn the 2 year old over to us. I'm not sure if it would be that simple... People do it every day with their biological children but I think it may be more difficult with adopted children.

We really feel it would be in the 2 year olds best interest to be with us. If she was with my neighbor she would either end up in daycare or I would be babysitting her myself anyway so why not place her with my husband and I right from the beginning...

Thank you for any suggestion you can give us, Lynda in NY