adoption

[ashdanimom]

I am going through an adoption we have filed about a month ago lawyer not giving much infoas to how long it will take from here so I am trying to just get an idea of how much longer it will take and more info on the post placement assessment so any help would be appreciated

[capeach]

Hi!

Are you adopting internationally or domestically? If IA, which country are you adopting from?

[ashdanimom]

we are adopting domestically and were actually handed the child by her parents to us for the purpose of adoptingbut our lawyer isnt much help with anything we have done a lot of his leg work and we went to his office july 28 when she was 1 month old and shes now almost 7 mths old and we dont seem any closer to being done

[capeach]

I'm going to move your post over to the domestic adoption board. You should be able to get some help and assistance there.

I hope you can get things straightened out!

[BC-lisa in venice]

Have you started your post placement study? Finalization can't be scheduled until that is complete AND the baby has been with you for six months (which she has). You can check with the court to see what has been filed and give a call to your state office of DCFS to see if a worker has been assigned. Ifthis is an independent adoption the state can do your study.

lisa

OPPS!!! never mind I thought you were in N CA not NC. Don'tknow aboutthelaws there. I would checkwith the local courts and see wahthas been filed. I don't know if they haveit there but here you can go online and get the forms needed to complete an adoption with an explenation of when, how and by whom they need to be filed. That might give you an idea of what needs to be done and what has been done. Who is doing you post placement? If an agency is they would know what needed to be done and might be able to update you.

[ashdanimom]

all our lawyer has told us is he has filed the paper work and that Socail servies will handle the post placement we were supposed to be post placement and preplacement but since we already had the baby ss signed a paper stating we needed to take the child immeditely and that was no time to do the preplacement and he told us the preplacement and post placement contained the same stuff and that is all he told us.So we were not sure of the post placement wasafter the adoption was final or had to be done before.When we ask the secretary she never answers questions says she will ask and call back and she doesnt call back and when we call she says she forgot to ask. Lisa

[marg]

I'm in NC. What exactly is the legal status of the child? Has the attorney obtained TPR's? It sounds like you need a new attorney or to hook up with an agency. Where are you? Lutheran Family services can do your post placements and help you with all the paperwork. The local social services office should be able to as well but doesn't sound like they are in any hurry. here in my county (Wake) they tell you upfront that unless you are adopting through social services you are not a priority and you will have a looong wait for a homestudy or anything else.

In NC you have to file the petition for adoption within 30 days of placement, has that happened? You should be able to find out by calling your county's court house. Ask for the Clerk of Court's office. When you get that office ask to talk to someone in Special Petitions. If the petition hasn't been filed I would go file it myself. An attorney is not requirted to do this. You just complete the forms in triplicate and give them $40. You usually have to have 3 post placement visits before you can finalize.

[BC-lisa in venice]

SOunds like independent adoptions in CA where you can take placment without a full homestudy and the homestudy is done at the same time as the post placement study. The post placement study is REQUIRED before finalization. Call you county office of SS AND your local court and see if you areevenin the system. Adoption records are not sealed until after finalization so you should be able to get info. You miught also want toconsult with another Attorney. It sounds like this one either does not know what he is doing or is simplynot doing what is neccesary. Go to the http://www.adoptionattorneys.org and see if anyone is practicing in your area.

lisa

[ashdanimom]

We have the parental rights relinquishment btu the lawyer has just now turned al that in right before christmas. We are meeting with him today to hopefully get somewhere all he told us abotu the post placement was that the judge would order ss to do it and would give them 60 days to do.We are in rockinghma county.But SS had to come out and check things out when we first got her because she came from new hanover county and so they already knew she was here and safe and they talked like we could get ours done pretty quickly. Ihave alot of questions for him so i plan on asking him a lot. but thanks for replying u have helped. what makes it wrose is he was the 3rd lawyer we went to and the only one that handles adoptions anymore in our county

[marg]

Let us know what he says because honestly if I were in your shoes I'd be questionnning his competence. You might need to hire an agency to do your post placements to hurry this up.