[ktnjo]

Hello,

I don't know if anyone remembers me, but in Feb. I had posted a thread about our niece that was pregnant w/ twins that I wanted to adopt. Well that didn't work out, she gave birth to one child (don't know what happened to the other fetus, but only one baby was born). She delivered two months premature in April and has kept this baby.

We just found out this weekend that she is pregnant AGAIN. She and our whole family knows that we have been trying to get pregnant for 8+ years. Well now this neice knows she cannot handle another child and has come to us to see if we want to adopt this child. We of course want to do this.

My question is where to I start? Do I contact an attorney now or wait until she's further along? Do I (or our niece) contact her social worker? Does anyone have an idea of the costs? I'm so excited and numb, I don't know where to start in this adoption process.

Any information anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated!!!

Katie and Joe

[Mared2chuck]

I am guessing your niece isn't that far along.. I would get a homestudy done asap as they take a while and in most states you have to have one in order to adopt. I would look for an attorney atleast with some time to go you can look for a reasonable one. It should'nt be to complicated for you since your niece is asking you if you would adopt her child. Keep in mind though that relative adoptions can be difficult for a while. Read a book or talk to a professional about your feelings. I know it can be tough I adopted my nephew and was constantly trying to figure out were my brother (his bfather) fit in. Good luck and god bless you in your venture

[rose32542]

Hi! I'm new here. Actually, it may not be best to get a homestudy right away. We are in the process of adopting triplets. THe birth mother is a relative. In AZ, where we live, in relative adoptions homestudies are not done until the children are in your home. We have had the babies from the day they were born; they are four months old now and we just had our homestudy on Monday. Also, in the county where we live the county attorney handles relative adoptions free of charge. We did hire an attorney to do a severance piece on the birth father, and we had to pay for the homestudy, but the rest is free.

I would contact your county attorney first and figure out if they do something similar there. Find out if the birth father is likely to sign the papers himself, and if not, you may want to hire someone to handle it like we did. Every state is different, but before you go paying for a homestudy or attorney's fees make sure you understand the process in your state. Remember realtive adoptions are somewhat different from agency or nonrelative adoptions. We, too were going to get the homestudy first; it would have been a huge waste of money if we had!

Goood Luck!

[Lynard1210]

Rose,

I was surprised that your county attorney did your adoption for free. That is great!! I'm in Ohio and never heard of that here - where are you? I did our adoption myself. Filed the papers when M was 3 weeks old (bmom had signed consent in front of social worker - 2 presumed dad's - neither had signed Putitive Father Registry). The hearing was set for 6 mos away and the county social worker did our home study (NOT for free . . but the court filing fees covered it - $460.00). The home study was a joke. The social worker was sick that day and didn't even ask to see the nursery. I cojoled her into looking at it. She was at our house for maybe 20-30 minutes and then a done deal.

[rose32542]

Sorry, I didn't see your last post until now. We are in Glendale, Az, actully live on Luke AFB. From what I understand, it isn't only relative adoptions that are handled free of charge, it's ANY consenting adoption. I'm not sure if it's this way throughout AZ, or just in our county. I would assume its a statewide thing.

We used an agency for the homestudy, of course. I have never heard of a hs being as short as yours was! Ours was about four hours, though the walk-through was maybe 2 minutes. We don't even have cribs set up yet. The babies' room is basically storage for diapers and clothes right now; they still sleep in swings in our bedroom because they are small enough to still need to eat in the night. (They are four months old, but my littlest is still under 8 lbs!)

[megsmommy04]

Hi. I would first contact an attorney and see what your state laws are as far as family related adoptions because as in our case we did not need a homestudy. We have done this type of adotion 2xs and not needed one. Good Luck

[reva_cherese]

Both parents severed their rights.

We had to hire 3 lawyers....one for each of them and one for us...it cost us about $1900.00 dollars and we didn't need a homestudy. They did a background check but without fingerprinting.

Our daughter had lived with us and social services was never involved.

They considered it a private relative adoption and we were in court maybe 10 minutes at most...most of that just waiting to see the judge.

If you can afford private...without social services...go for it...check with an attorney or your local clerk of courts and then go from there
Understand that with social services you are usually talking delays and hassles...not that they intent it that way but the system is usually heavily backlogged.

When our daughter's 1/2 brothe r was born. The attorney and I met the bparents at the hospital and it was actually cheaper this time around...they severed their rights, right there...the hospital had a family advocate who talked with them for a few minutes...they signed we took him....still have the court date to handle...but it was pretty easy...especially since we're related and we didn't have to involve children services

[scrapy]

I hope that this really works out for you. You and dh will be in my prayers.
blessings!