[mayor_tx]

My wife and I are wanting to adopt my cousins yet to be born girl. My cousin and her boy friend are both willing to relinquish their parental rights and want their little girl to go to us.

I've been calling around to several lawyers and haven't heard back from one that can help us. For those of you who have done a relative adoption, what is the process we will be going through? How expensive was it?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[hkolln]

You will need an attorney...I'd keep calling around. The bioparents will have to sign away rights so you can adopt. You need to make sure they are willing to do this and an attorney can help you with all the legal stuff.

Are you also in TX? If you are in another state besides TX you'll need an ICPC completed to move the child to your state.

[mayor_tx]

We are both in texas. Who do we contact to get a home study done?

[hkolln]

Originally Posted by mayor_tx

We are both in texas. Who do we contact to get a home study done?

You'll need an attorney...they should be able to help you with that. At least then you'll have all the legal stuff done properly.

If the child was in custody of DCF then you'd contact the social worker but it doesn't sound like thats the case, right?

[heartize]

We adopted our nephew from out of state. He was taken into cps custody, but the birth mother signed a consent to adopt naming us as the adoptive parents. The state paid for the home study and are reimbursing us for travel expenses and filing fees (around $2800- but we are getting $2000 back). If we would have done this with out the state it would have cost 2-3x more. the whole process (initial court date to finalization) took 8 months. Our son only spent 2 weeks in foster care, the time it took for us to pass an initial background check. I then flew to his home state and picked him up for a relative visit....which we all planned to be a permanent move! (and it was- he didn't return to his home state until we went to court for finalization). Good luck!!

[hkolln]

Our adoption and home study cost us nothing to adopt our niece. Plus we received a subsidy too because we became licensed foster parents.

[wcurry66]

Given, this is a yet to be born child, it sounds like a standard domestic adoption. You don't need an agency, but you will ned a lawyer who specializes in adoptions. they will know the laws of your state, make sure you get all the proper paperwork filed.

In some ways, you are lucky DCYF isn't involved. its a simpler process for domestic adoption. OTOH, those of us "in the system" have the steps laid out a bit better. I just told enough people and they made sure (eventually) we had the right paperwork

good luck!!

[mayor_tx]

We found a great social worker who is helping us through this whole process. We're getting the home study going and having paperwork drawn up before she is born.

Thank you all for your help!

[Barksum]

Thanks for the update. Glad you found someone to help guide you through.