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Originally Posted By Shellie

I am looking for help , any information would be so helpful. I am in the process of adopting my sisters baby. Her( my sister ) and the birth father have given up their parental rights, but...
according to my lawyer, we have to go through with a home study. If this is all consentual. Than why must I go through with all the extra details. It is all mutual. She wants me to have her. It is costing more money than I expected. And it is still adding up. I read somewhere about in family adoptions, the home study is almost always waived. Does anyone know of any sites that can help me? To find something to rush the process along. They tell me the home study can take up to 6 months. Please help me.

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Originally Posted By Sarah

Shellie,

Something smells fishy... Some states, like massachusetts require a home study. but it sounds like you are going through a private adoption (the birth mom is family). Contact an adoption lawyer, sometimes the first appointment is free.

Hi Shellie,

Believe me Shellie when I say that getting the right attorney is EVERTHING in what you are trying to do. About two years ago I and my wife went through the adoption process with a grandaughter. We were her legal guardians, but thought we were to old to adopt her ourselves.

We went through hell and wasted a lot of money on the first attorney when we were trying to become her legal guardians. When we found a very good adoption attorney, she just went and did what the first attorney said was almost impossible to do. Not only that, she did it quickly and for less money then we had paid the first attorney.

In our case, we had a family member, an in-law, who wanted to adopt her and although it was really on the outer limits of in-family adoption, no home study was required. We found that in a lot of cases it is up to the discretion of the judge who will handle the case. In this case the judge decided it was not neccessary.

You can check the law on this yourself by looking up adoption law in the state where you reside. You should be able to find it on the internet.
In our state I found it by doing a google search: (state name) state code. If that fails any good library will have law books which you can use to check out what the law says on the matter.

I wish you luck and applaud you for trying to do a "good thing"

L.C.C.

[ebooks2u]

Hi Shellie,

I myself adopted both of my sisters girls. Depending on the laws in each state, depending where you live. Here's a short version of my story.

I adopted the first neice through pro-se. (meaning you do the adoption yourself and get help on certain paper work through the courts). I had everything including the consent from my sister to allow me to adopt. There was no need for the homestudy since the state was not involved in the agreement between my sister and I. It just took the small length of time to do the neccessary paperwork and filing and of course, see the judge for him/her to grant the adoption. NO COMPLICATIONS!!!!

The second adoption, however, went through Florida DCF. We went through homestudys after homestudys and kept getting turned down to adopt my other neice (to keep both girls together). We hired a lawyer, went through the administrative process (appeal) and 2 days before the administrative hearing, the state decided they didn't have a strong enough case why we shouldn't adopt and went ahead and agreed to the adoption. They kept coming up with different sets of reasons not to allow the adoption. TWO YEAR BATTLE WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES and the ordeal was finally over.

Now that i'm trying to adopt my 2 step children which I have been helping my husband raise for the past 8 years with no help from the mother, the laws regarding adoption have changed so dramatically that it's nearly impossible to adopt without paying thousands to a lawyer to do the adoption. It's plain and simple ABANDONMENT. Any tips on how to proceed to make these children legally mine, please send message.