[jm2500]

My husband and I are doing this adoption thing on our own, since we can't afford an attorney. I have already filed the paperwork at the courthouse, but now I have to place an ad in the local paper searching for the birthfather (since the birthmother has no idea who he is).

I was wondering if anyone here has done that. I'm wondering how I should word it, and what all legally has to be in the wording. Any help would be great.


Julie

[momofmykids]

Get a copy of your local paper and find an ad for a pbfather and just follow that. They are usually located in the back of the paper near the foreclosures and estate settlements.

[Nevada Jen]

If you can at all afford to have an attorney help, hire an attorney to do just this one little part for you. It is very critical. Probably the most critical part of the adoption other than birthmother relinquishment. It really should not cost you very much more than publication alone would cost. The attorney will probably have a better source for publication and have a deal with that publisher. It definately will not cost more than 2 hours of an attorneys time.

If not, call the courthouse and find out which publications you can publish in. Your local paper may not be adaquate or the best choice. There is usually a court rule which tells which publications are acceptable or at the very least defines the parameters of those publications.

For instance, in some states it must be a weekly publication available to the general public throughout the entire sate with an average circulation of more that 5000 people.

Good luck.

Jen

[momofmykids]

In TN, it has to run for four consecutive weeks in the county the father was last known to live in (or where pbmom was living when she got pg in your case, I guess).

Like PP said, an attorney would be so helpful here, but I do understand that they are SO expensive!

[danhanan]

We had to do that but we only had to run it 4 times in two consecutive weeks. It had to be in a circulated paper but it didn't have to have the highest circulation. Also, when I contacted the paper, in this case we had to search in Florida, they had a pretty standard format. I only had to fill in the blanks.

[Hopp]

you'll need to post it in the birthfather registry as well. Our attorney did this for us, so I've no idea where to tell you to go. All I know is our attorney said that the paper posting wasn't enough. Maybe that's a state thing? I don't know, but it's worth looking into. Like a previuos poster said, this is one of the more critical thing you'll need to do and get it right so that in 5 years you don't have a birthdad fighting you in court. Good Luck.