[KellyStacy]

Someone please guide me as to what i should do.Through friends we have talked to a mom who want to have her child adopted by us! This is truely an answer to our prayers.The problem is we have no idea where to begin.The biological mom is only 2 months pregnant.We have spoken to lawyers.From what we understand nothing can be done until this biologicalmom gives birth.The thing i need to find out is the homestudy.Since this is an independent or private adoption is a homestudy necessary? We were told we did not need a homestudy by several lawyers.They seem to agree that we could take the baby home from the hospital and file a court petition which then the court would assign someone to interview us.I am just wondering is this the same procedure as an agency homestudy? or is this less extensive.Please if anyone has ever adopted privately without an agency in the state of Maryland.Please let em know what steps i can take.Thanks

[mommytobug]

These are just my thoughts, I am no expert. We kinda had a situation like this and by the time it was over we had 3 agencies one sw and 4 attorneys involved. My opinion is that IF I were to do this again, I would ONLY want an adoption attorney who knew all the laws. I liked having an agency involved. You do not pay theregular fees because they are not who matched you. I would start with an attorney who specializes in adoption and go from there. Your state laws will dictate how things have to be done!!

[lisa in venice]

I didn't think you could do an independent adoption in MD. I thought it was an agency state. Maybe it has changed

You have plenty of time so no need to run around and worry about it. I hope you spoke to ADOPTION attorneys not just a family law specialist but someone who does adoptions and not step parent adoptions but infant placements to see what the rule really are. I have a friend who adopted in MD several years ago and from what I remember the rules there were stricter than many states so you want to be careful to choose a professional who really knows their stuff.

CA allows for post placement homestudies in independent adoptions (It is not any cheaper) and we have done it twice but in both cases we did use agencies to do birth parents counseling. I don't know what the revocation period (time after palcement when the birth family can change their minds)is in MD but in CA at the time it was 3 months for independent adoptions so I wanted to make sure that the birth mom was REALLY well counseled before placement and really well supported after. The agency allowed us to just pay for the counseling so it was not a big expense($100/month for about 6 months). The attorney did everything else.

BTW our first independent adoption was a long match like this. It was a great time for our families to get to know each other and to sort of bond. It is funny but I think I bonded faster with that baby because I loved his birth family so much by the time of the birth.
lisa