[TamaraKay]

About a year ago I posted a reunion thread on this website. I was reunited with my son and his parents. There is some reasons why I did not continue that post, but let me say I am so thrilled to be in his life. I adore him, his parents and the opportunity to be involved. We visit each other several times a year because of the 8 hours that seperate us. If we were closer we would be very much a part of their whole family. That is just how comfortable we are with each other. It is truley wonderful. They came to my house for Christmas last year and stayed with us and when my family visits them we stay at their house.
Now I have to seek out knowledge or whatever you have to offer about a particulair situation.
I think I can say it is devastating to me and his parents as well as to himself and family in general. My birthson, at the age of 17, is going to be a father. OUCH! OK so we are done crying about it and moving on. We are just that type of people. No need to dwell on the negative - what can we do now that we have the situation.
MY husband and I have talked about adopting several times after we had our last son together 6 years ago. I could not have anymore children, but we wanted one more. Then this situation presented itself. It would be an interstate adoption with openess and some blood relation. I met with the pregnant teen mother over Thanksgiving and although she is wavering back and forth about adoption she is thrilled with the idea of placing her daughter with us. She is due in January.
Her name that she chose for her baby is London Karma - Karma because she believes in it. I believe in Karma and fate and destiny - what goes around comes around. Now think just one moment about the circle here. It gives me cold chills.
IS ANYONE familiar with interstate adoption?

[bohtieque]

I don't know much, but look up ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) on Google. There's a ton of info out there.

[Casey677]

We live in FL and our dd was born in IN. We just had to have a lawyer in our state and one in IN. Make sure that the lawyers are familiar with the ICPC process and it REALLY helps if they have worked with the other state before. In my case, my lawyers had worked together before so it was quite smooth.

Wow! What an amazing situation. My thoughts to all involved.

[bohtieque]

Question for you, Casey: How long did it take to get clearance to leave IN? We're looking at interstate adoption, and I'm a little worried about hanging out in another state for a week or more, waiting for paperwork to clear. I'm a homebody!!!

[Casey677]

The average is 7-14 days, but it can take more or less time depending on the speed of the states. We arrived in IN on a Friday, papers were signed on Sunday. IN cleared us on Thursday and FL said we could come home the following Friday. We had a paperwork glich (IN accidentally sent it to the wrong state) and we were dealing with a Holiday weekend.

[TamaraKay]

Casey - What a cutie pie that dd is. Congrats!!

Can this be done in 2 months? The whole process. There sounds like a lot involved in the process. We are waiting to get in with a lawyer in our home state, so do not have lots of answers right now. We are at the very beginning of the stage. Do you find the lawyer in the other state or does your lawyer? Gosh dealing with 2 lawyers at once, everyones dream. HA I have never even dealt with one. Do both lawyers cost the same?

Can you take custody first while the adoption process is underway? The birthmom was in Foster care for the first 3-4 years of her life and was not a pleasant experience for her nor was her adoption. It is sad. I just feel IF we had more time we could make sure all was in order by the time the baby was born. Fear there is not because of lack of knowledge of the process.

Thanks for that website bohtieque. I will look into that tonight.

[Casey677]

You are going to need to get a homestudy done. Because of the quick time frame they will probably charge more to get it "rushed" but you should definitely be able to get everything done and be able to take the baby straight from the hospital.

Our situation was a bit different as we were actively trying to adopt. We found our atty in our state and when we were matched, she recommended an atty in bmom's state. However, we had to make all the calls, get it all arranged.

Thanks for your compliment about my dd. She is pretty cute if I do say so myself

Casey

[TamaraKay]

Do you know if I can arrange the homestudy myself while waiting to get in with the lawyer or does all that have to go through the lawyer?

Thanks soooo much for your input, it is greatly appreciated.

[Casey677]

The first thing we had done was our homestudy. Our agency and lawyers came later. Just start calling around!

[Guspiv]

I dont really have any input in reference to IPC but I just wanted to say WOW! What an awesome family, if all goes as you are planning, how interesting will that be for your new child! I think it is really lovely that you are all on big happy family. Good luck.