Older child adoption

mina2u · #1 02-19-2004, 06:53 PM

We were just matched with an older boy. He has been living in an LDS home. I feel trully blessed to find a child that is familiar with the LDS church and beliefs. He is not yet baptized yet. Am I right in thinking that baptism cannot happen until the adoption is finalized?

sammycos · #2 02-19-2004, 11:40 PM

I think you are right about the baptism, We couldn't bless our children until their adoptions were final so I would assume that it would be the same for baptism. Good luck

Peggy · #3 02-20-2004, 05:11 AM

I think if he has gone through tpr, and you get written permission from your socialworker, it is OK. Providing the church agrees. I wanted my daughter baptized early, and got permission from the state, but then my church (different religion) wanted to wait for finalization, just to be safe.

ladybuglady · #4 02-20-2004, 10:26 AM

Hi,

I beleive that the child cannot be baptized until the adoption is complete. Since an infant cannot be blessed or sealed until the adoption is final, I would think that the baptism would be the same.

Congrats and good luck!

LBL

Peggy · #5 02-20-2004, 03:18 PM

I was given permission by the state, and my daughter expressed a desire to be baptized. It was the church, in my case that wanted to wait for finalization. Belonging to a religion is considered a positive, for the older kids, it gives them a sense of belonging.

ladybuglady · #6 02-20-2004, 03:37 PM

Hi,

I am sorry I wasn't more specific, what I meant to say was that I don't beleive the church will let you baptize them until the adoption is complete. I think that is in their guidelines.

LBL

kdgordon · #7 02-22-2004, 11:43 AM

I think it actually depends on which name you want the child baptized by. Our son, who was with a different foster family at the time, turned 8 and was baptized by his foster father at that time. We didn't adopt him until a year later although we had his sister placed with us at the time he was baptized so we knew when he was baptized. Utah at least will allow them to be baptized as long as it is okayed by the state or the birthparents if they still have custody but if you want it done under his new legal name, you would need to wait.

Kathleen

JeannineW · #8 02-22-2004, 06:11 PM

How about blessings? We are about to go pickup our 2 yo daughter from Guatemala. I believe we will need to readopt and definitely we need to change her name but the adoption is final in Guatemala. Can we give her a blessing in her "name-to-be" or do we have to wait for the legal name change? How about the sealing?

gabsdot · #9 08-05-2004, 03:26 PM

We're the nearly parents of a baby boy Andre. We will travel to Russia on Aug 19th to finalise the adoption. The last time we were at the temple we asked about the sealing and were told that we will need to bring the adoption papers with us and that's it. you should check with your temple president to see if the guatamala adoption papers suffice. We're planning our sealing for October 16th which is the next stake temple trip after the adoption and coincidentally is my parents wedding anniversary and my mums birthday. Just a bit of trivia.

ModernMother · #10 09-16-2004, 10:07 AM

Jeanne,

Yes the adoption has to be finalized in the name that you are changing to before you can give a name and a blessing or have her sealed.

mmdd2b · #11 09-16-2004, 01:07 PM

Hello,
Just reading thru and was curious. We are waiting for our baby to be born around October 9th. I know that the courts will not be finalized until 10months after the birth. So, by your experience I will need to wait until then. Wow, my husband will have a hard time holding the baby to bless it.

KB

rightmom · #12 09-16-2004, 01:23 PM

We have been fortunate to adopt 6 infants in the past 9 years! We were told by our local temple that the blessing had to happen before the sealing, but after the adoption was finalized, so that membership records were made and retained correctly for the child and for our family. Recently a friend was told that she could have her child blessed at 2 months even though they didn't finalize till 6 months! She did have her sealing at a different temple than the one we went to and maybe each temple has different rulings about the blessing.

I do know that you have to have current adoption papers to do your sealing with your name as adoptive parents and etc. We had our 2 youngest sealed to us in the Provo Temple so their big brother who was at the MTC could join us!! It was fantastic! WE had to do the sealing during his "usual weekly temple time"--but it was great! His whole Korean district came and supported us and it was an experience to remember! (Of course, they all are!)

One of our adoptions took longer to finalize because of bf challenges (that all worked out in the end!) but our son was a big 11 month old when it came time to do his blessing---The men just made a "bridge" with their hand and arms and he "sat" on their arms and my husband held him and so the baby could look around the room while Daddy gave him the blessing! He was a very quiet little boy while Daddy prayed and I was grateful! I saw someone else have the adoptive mother hold the child in her lap and then the brethern put their hands on his head for the blessing. We are a wonderful creative people, aren't we?

Best of luck to all!

mmdd2b · #13 09-16-2004, 01:34 PM

I really appreciate you ideas on blessing your baby when they are older. My Husband just joined this May and will receive the MK-Prsthd by this Sunday. He so gung-ho about now. But anyway, I think we will be blessing our future child about the same time that we will be sealed together with him/her. Cool to think this far ahead.

Thanks for sharing....

KB

rightmom · #14 09-16-2004, 02:25 PM

Because our child was so much older when he was blessed, we were advised by some people to have a special meeting just for his blessing. Well, our ward had been so very supportive through our adoptive efforts ( this was #1), that we didn't know how to just invite a few, so we arranged to meet in the Primary room just following our block meetings the Sunday before we were going to the temple---we had an opening song, opening prayer and then my husband thanked everyone who had helped and then they did the blessing and we had a closing prayer to end the meeting and it was great! I think we were more comfortable because the baby at 11 months didn't have to be as perfectly quiet as in a chapel full of people---but he surprised us and was quiet! But later, in the Bountiful he cried all the way through the sealing! Who knows? But it was okay. What needed to happen, happened.

I love the phrase that my children grew in my heart instead of in my tummy---they call me their "forever momma" and our temple experiences have made that name even more special to me! Because now I am!!

Keep a smile!
Sheila

mmdd2b · #15 09-16-2004, 02:40 PM

Good to know. Thanks for letting me see a glimpse of your life and how you have taken off to a wonderful-eternal family. I know we will get where we need to be in the year to come. Just can't wait for this little guy/girl, get sealed w/husband and then have a sealing w/our child. I hope with not to much of a fuss.

What an awesome plan that HF has for us, don't you think.

Have a great day. I LOVE that saying btw.

KB

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