[misstonicee]

We finalized the adoption of our little girl on 10/9/09!! We are so happy that we are finally to this point because we never thought it would come. We also got married at the same time, so we had a double celebration party. The actual adoption and wedding ceremony took a total of 15 minutes! I couldn't believe how quick it was...after 14 years of my relationship with my husband and 20 long months of working on my daughter's case, it only took 15 minutes to be finalized! I was so excited

This was a subsidized adoption, so we are wondering what we need to do next to ensure that her subsidy, tuition payments, services and medicaid continue. Anyone with ideas please post away!

[RobinR]

Congratulations! Great news!

[NJMama]

Congratulations!!!! I am sure you are still on cloud 9 - I know it took a good long time for my feet to touch the ground after our finalization. I am sooo happy for your whole family.

You don't need to do anything for the subsidy. When you get your check next month is will have additional lines of detail on it - showing foster care for 9 days and then subsidized adoption reference for the remaining days of the month. That is a seemless process and requires nothing on your part.

For medicaid - if you or your HUSBAND (gotten used to that yet??? LOL) have private insurance, you need to complete the paperwork to add your daughter onto that policy. It will be your primary insurance for her, and medicaid will be the secondary insurance. Again, for us, the name change and issuance of new cards from medicaid and her HMO happened automatically. We didnt have to do anything - we just got new cards in the mail with her new name a few weeks after the adoption. I remember thinking they came fairly fast.

For the daycare tuition - that does require some action on your part - and it might be a little more tricky if she was an out of county placement. Essentially you now need to submit a new daycare application with the agency in your county that handles the daycare vouchers. If she was from a different county, this will be a different agency than has been paying the daycare up until now. If she is from your county, it will be the same agency, but you still need to do the new application. The funds come out of a different budget. It is called the PACC program - for post-adoption child care. You can either ask your caseworker from DYFS or if that doesnt get you anywhere, you can call the agency directly but be sure to let them know you need an application for daycare under PACC. They will still need a certification of some sort that comes from DYFS which verifies that the adoption was finalized and gives proof to the agency that you were approved for the subsidy and continuation of payments. I had a hard time getting our worker to send that to the agency. I ultimately had to call down to Trenton to our assigned subsidy worker who immediately followed through and got the necessary forms to Catholic Charities for me. From there, its the same as before - you fill out the application, get your employment verification and then the certification page that needs to be completed and signed from the daycare center. That all gets returned to the agency and they issue a new contract. You have 90 days after the adoption to do that application or you forfeit daycare FOREVER. So, since it takes a while, get on that right away!!

Once you get both the signed Judgment of adoption and the new birth certificates from your attorney - you will then be able to go to Social Security to apply for a new social security card for her. Some AP's only do a name change, but I didnt feel comfortable with that. I was afraid that someone who had access to her number previously could potentially abuse it - identity theft, etc. I just got a whole new number with her new name issued.

Then there is changing her name on medical records, etc. But all things considered, the administrative stuff was relatively easy.

Enjoy your happy family!!

[JJemail1]

Congratulations!!! What an EXTRA special day!

[irelady10]

Congrats!!!!

[misstonicee]

Thanks all! I must say that NO I am not used to calling him my husband!! It sounds pretty funny coming out of my mouth.

Our case worker sent us a letter that stated that she sent the necassary paperwork in for tuition subsidy, so I gues I don't have to worry about that...well except to fill out the paperwork that we get after we call the 800 number.

I thought that Medicaid would be her primary insurance. I guess I'll have to look into that

Thanks again!
Toni

[tess113]

Congratulations!!!....we are very happy for you

That is very good news to hear,and all the best wishes to your family!!

[chickie1221]

Congratulations! We put our daughter on my husband's policy asap, because she is special needs, and we need to see lots of specialists that don't take Medicaid, or even the Horizon HMO. Drs are sooooo much friendlier, now that she has normal insurance! Even though your child is in perfect health now, you never know when you might need a specialist you can trust. You have 30 days from the date of adoption to add her as if she was a newborn, with full coverage retroactive to the date of adoption (and don't let them try to tell you otherwise; it's the law). After 30 days, your insurance company can make her wait until the next open enrollment period next year, or they can refuse to cover her based on pre-existing conditions, so do it quickly!
Our daughter's name change was all fouled up by Medicaid and Horizon. She needed a new medicaid number, because she'd had an institutional number before, and when Horizon entered the name change, they dropped her for one month...nice, huh? Dropping a medically fragile kid, who, of course, got sick as soon as the insurance lapsed...