[kdk545]

Hi everyone,

Well finally after almost 2 years home (August 1st is our 2 year annivesary of gotcha day!) we are ready to readopt in California. Can anyone tell me the initial steps to get the ball rolling (who to contact etc)?

I know my homestudy agency will probably help me as well, but I thought Id start here first in case there is an appointment to be made or paperwork to start collecting.

Thanks a lot!
Mom to one son (age 4) and one daughter (almost 3) from Kirov, Russia.

[TweetyMom04]

We Re-Adopted in GA. Here is our process, that may or may not be similar to CA's process.

We were referred by a friend, to an Attorney who specializes in Re-Adoption and Adoptions (Domestic). Our friend used the same agency we did and used this Attorney for her Re-Adoption.

We contacted the Attorney and collected the necessary documents she needed to proceed.

The whole Re-Adoption process took about 6 months +/- from start of paperwork, to receiving the official court paperwork signed by the Judge in our county.

Good Luck

[beckyww]

You may want to see if CA offers a "recognition of foreign decree." Texas does, and we got it - and it's a whole, whole lot cheaper than re-adopting. Either way, we could have gotten birth certificates from the state of Texas for Julia. But the "recognition" was thousands cheaper than the "readoption."

Becky
The Woodworth Family in Beautiful San Antonio TX

[calikismet]

Readoption in CA is done via the Family/ Juvenile Court. I would recommend a trip to your local county court, within the Juvenile dept. They have a packet that they hand out that has all of the forms, etc that need to be completed. In general, it worked this way for us:

1. Complete and hand-file all forms with the court
2. Court assigns a case number
3. Provide case number to your homestudy agency
4. HS agency completes report (may require visit to your home) and submits that to the court along with a Consent and Joinder
5. When you know that has been submitted, call the court to ask for a court date
6. Court date is easy - appear before a judge, sign stuff, get a picture, and you're done
7. Within about 6 months, you'll receive the CA birth cert

CA does not do foreign recognition like some other states do. We have readoption processes available and in-place, so that is what you need to do.

Here is the link to all of the CA adoption forms:

California Courts: Forms
(you may need to pull down "adoption" on the menu)

Here is the package that is handed out at the courthouse:
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/forms/do...s/adopt050.pdf

Go to page 2, International Adoptions.

As an aside, I have discovered that you can also get a CA birth cert without readoption in CA via the probate courts, and a "Court-ordered finding of the fact of birth." However, we wanted the readoption so that we had a CA doc that provided the relationship/ adoption.

[carrie2adopt]

I'm in CA too and was told I could file papers myself...though in a slightly different order than mentioned above. I'm to hand in an updated homestudy along with all of the above mentioned paperwork, at which point I will be assigned a court date. No mention of the hs agency needing the case number. I'll ask them to be sure, but it might be a slightly different process depending on the county you're in. I also visited our county juvenille court house to pick up the packet. I've got a hs update next week and then will turn in all the documents as soon as it's finished. So glad to be nearing the home stretch! Just a passport for her is all that's left, I think. Not sure if I need to update the coc, or if that's included with the re-adopt.

[kdk545]

A big thank you to everyone who replied to my post with such helpful information! Especially to calikismet for the great step by step. I really appreciate it.