[jennsult]

Has anyone re-adopted in Bucks County- Pennsylvania. We started the process a few months ago and now they want all this additional information. They want the original FBI Fingerprints, original criminal checks, original child abuse clearances and they may want an additional 2 post adoption reports. We've already supplied them with our required 1 post adoption report.

When I told the attorney that all the originals are in Guatemala and I have a very slim chance (NONE!)of getting them back, I can provide copies. She said we may need them done all over again. Besides all the aggravation of doing that, it will cost us more money that we just don't have right now. I am so frustrated.

I don't understand why they are making it so difficult. Anyone else have this kind of trouble?

[couchpotato]

i see by your timeline u went on a visit we too are from pennsylvania-northeast and found out that if you visited u didint have to readopt only had to do name change.

[jennsult]

I guess our situation is a little different. We are not married yet, so the Guatemalan adoption was done in my name only. Now we want to re-adopt in both names. Maybe that makes it more difficult, I don't know.

[dance_muffin]

Hey there, I feel your pain. We just completed our NJ readoption and let me tell you it was hard work. I was totally stressed out at the end.

We had two pay for two extra hs reports just pertaining to the readoption. Cost $$$. Also refingerprinting. I also had problems with the clerk at Surrogate Court about not having "orignal document from Guatemala". She refused to set a court date at first. Well I didn't take no for an answer...I went down with my entire file on my dd whole adoption process. (My paperwork weighs about 50lbs at this point). I let her go thru everthying...and she finally set the date. I had to wait four months to get on the judge's calendar. I really felt she wasn't helping me get our readoption done.
Just make sure to find out whether the court requires a final hs within 2 weeks of your court date as NJ does. We didn't find this out because my sw was to "busy" until the last minute.

You are almost at the end...I know how dishearting it is to have to spend more money on hs and refingerprinting. PM if you need to talk.

Hugs,

[GuatMommy2Be]

I'm very sorry to hear this. Ours took 2 wks. I have been told that after April 1st re-adopts all over the US were going to get much harder.... maybe that is why they want additional paperwork.

[pjkay720]

Hi, I can feel your pain. I'm from Delaware County, PA and just started the re-adoption the end of January. My attorney is kind of slow, but she just sent us a letter of intent to adopt and told us to start working on our clearances again. She also told me they added a new one involving finger prints. She do a lot of adoptions so she doesn't know all the lingo. So far she has not told me of another post study report and I sure hope she doesn't, but it won't surprise me. This attorney also did our first sons readoption and we had to supply police and child abuse clearances, but we didn't have to do FBI which seems to be the case now. This re-adoption is taking a lot longer than our first one. We didn't visit so we need to re-adopt to change his name and obtain citizenship.

It appears adoptions everywhere from every angle are being scrutinized more. The only thing that keeps me from stressing out is that my son is home with me. Hang in there and I hope things get easier. I just wanted to let you know your not alone in dealing with these issues. My clearances have just been sent out, but I have to go get my fingerprints done again which is such a pain. Our local police department can be such a pain to get things like this done. Good Luck!

[Travelkid]

I live in York Co, VA and the judge req'd many of those things incl criminal/background check, etc. My attorney asked him to look at the original homestudy which sufficed.

[arthymom]

How totally unfair!

We are in neighboring Montco and it was really easy.

The courthouse orphan's division is there to assist you, not to burden you.

Maybe drive down there yourself and ask for a face to face appt? Sometimes you can get a clerk or someone who can help out. I found someone in Montco that was super and helped me out a lot to fill in the paperwork.

Take care,

[keirasmom]

I'm in Lehigh county and can give you the name of our very reasonable ($600) adoption attorney if you'd like. I also thought I would suggest looking into the possibility of readopting in the county your agency is in (that is if the agency is in another PA county). Before I hired an attorney I was going to do this because Lehigh County changed some regulations and our agency suggested trying their county.

Good Luck, it is a real pain in the you know what. Our readoption is scheduled for the 18th and I can't wait to be finally done!

[jennsult]

Thanks for the support. It's nice to know we are not alone. I am just so frustrated and angry that they make it so difficult.

[BrandyHagz]

You're doing more than "re-adoption" - you're also doing a second parent adoption and those requirements aren't uncommon in a 'second parent' or 'step parent' adoption (depending on where you live).

Maybe you could do the actual readoption now and do the second parent adoption later...when finances are better?

Our 'step parent adoption' cost us about 3K - after having to have a home study, home visit and clearances done on my husband - who the child was already living with and had been living with for 5 years +.

I asked, a number of times, what would happen if the homestudy/clearnaces came back 'bad' - would my son be taken away from me? Would my husband have to move out of the home?

Some of the hoops are crazy - but sadly, needed for one reason or another.