[waiting22]

[b]I am out of state, and may have a possible match in Florida.
I was wondering if someone could point me to a concise summary of Florida's adoption laws, regarding such things as, minimum time for a birthmom to surrender her rights, Finalization of adoption, requirements for a lawyer, or does an agency need to be invovlved, etc.


I am also looking into local attorneys, and agencies, and have read all the recommendations, and will be calling them hopefully this week.

Thanks in advance !

[Papamba]

My DH and I adopted our son out of FL and we live in a different state. He was adopted in 9/01 and there was a big change in the laws in 10/01. We chose to adopt from FL because they had better adoption laws than our state, one being once the mother signed her papers she couldn't "change her mind". Of course, if she would have immediately changed her mind we would not have a problem. We just didn't feel we couldn't begin to love and bond with a baby to have to return him/r a few days later. We are now in the process of waiting for a call/match (again in FL). From what I am to understand, if the baby is placed directly from the hospital, again, there is no time to lapse for the bmom to "change her mind". If the baby isn't placed from the hospital, the bmom does have a certain no. of days to decide. Our son's finalizaion was in 2/02. It took a little longer than most because we had a possible bfather that wanted to know if he belong to him...he didn't. One of the laws that did change was that an attorney can now do the finalizations which they couldn't with our first adoption. Hope I answered some of your questions.

Pam

[waiting22]

I appreciate your reply.

It appears that Floriday changes their laws quite frequently, and I hope I can find a summary of exisitng and proposed legislation.

[Lori Fraas]

AS of today, all the laws have changed. They are much better. The laws are in Chapter 63 but hard for a lay person to understand. No revocation period for birthparents if child is under 6 months. Fee free to e-mail me if you want more info. I am adoption professional doing home studies all over Florida

[bichonlover]

My wife and I adopted out of Fl back in 09/2001. Boy did the laws change. Our son was born on 09/28 and the laws changed 10/2001. Who did you do your adoption through? We used Christine Welch (Attorney in Tampa). Did you like who you went through? We loved Christine. Please send me a private message (pm) b/c I'd love to exchange stories with you and learn more about other people's experiences.

[niece]

I have helped some people find some laws on aboutadoption.com/lawsfl.
you can also go to a search engine and search for the laws

[waiting22]

Thanks for everyone's help so far.

At the moment I have enough information to get started, including applications and info from a Florida Lawyer.

Wish us luck !

[Lori Fraas]

what lawyer are you using?

[Annie Lee]

We are currently matched and will be coming to Florida in two weeks for the birth of our son. I also would like to know more about FL adoption laws.

I do know that the birthfather laws have change within the last few days so that if a father is naed and disclosure documents are sent to him, he has a timeframe that he has to register, if he does not register the birth and adoption proceeding do not have to be posted in the paper and he does not get any further information.

That is how I understand the most recent change