[ryansbella]

I was wondering if it was possible to adopt a baby with just the use of a lawyer to terminate parental rights? For example if you located a PBirthMom yourself and all that really needed to be taken care of was the legal stuff? How does this work and what is the average cost?

[ses1230]

ryansbella,

That is exactly how we adopted our daughter. After we were contacted by dd's birthmom, we contacted a Quad-A lawyer to represent us, and he also put us in touch with a lawyer that represented the bmom. We are also responsible for the counseling costs.

Our lawyer guided us through the process, and everything went very well. I would stress that it is important to use a lawyer that is very familiar with the adoption laws of the particular state, and one that can recommend where the bmom can seek counseling.

The cost depends on what the lawyers fees are, any bmom expenses (be careful about this - some states are very strict about what can and can not be paid for by aparents - always go through your lawyer), counseling, travel, hotel stay while witing for ICPC, etc.

If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.

Good Luck!

[ourdreamcametru]

This is how we adopted our daugher too, our Birthmother didn't accept the counseling so we didn't have that cost. Our attorney found another to represent Birthmother and located Birthfather. Our total cost including homestudy was under $6,000, all of which we got back on our taxes. Our attorney also put us in contact with a private agency to do our homestudy which was very lax, didn't look for much other than a clean, loving home. We had one visit before the baby was born and two afterwards. We found our Birthmother in Feb. and daughter was born in May so all of this can be handled very quickly. We are in Tennessee so make sure your attorney knows the law for your state. Good Luck!