A: You always hear about them, but you never see them.
Ahhhh, lawyers! What would we do without them? I feel like up until recently I have been doing more without our lawyer. Unfortunately, I have hit a wall. I have hit this wall despite hours of calls to City, County and State agencies. Every agency sends me to another agency that sends me to another agency that sends me back to the first agency where (if I'm lucky) I might finally get someone to tell me they don't deal with private adoptions. Otherwise I continue to spin my wheels with each subsequent call. It has been so frustrating that I've begun to wonder if Colorado private adoption law even exists! This is all work I shouldn't have to be doing. This is work our lawyer should be doing but every time I call him for an update he's got some sort of excuse as to why he hasn't completed the tasks that we are paying him to complete.
The tasks he has been assigned: 1-Find out if we also need to send our fingerprints to the FBI and 2-Find out if we need to complete a home study.
Task 1 - FBI - According to our county's sheriff's department private adoptions only require Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) background checks. However, that is not what our lawyer told us in our last meeting. According to him (at that time at least, now he is unsure) we need to send copies of our fingerprints to both bureaus.
Task 2 - Home Study - This is something he told us he would look into from the beginning and here we are 10 months into working with him and we still don't know the answer to the question. If we do have to complete a home study that brings up even more questions such as who do we contact to complete the study? We don't have to have as thorough of a home study as we would have if we had gone through an agency. So do we contact a county social worker to set up the home study? Someone who works for an agency? Will we have to wait another two months to get answers to these questions? AAAGGGGHHHHH!
Why don't we kick our lawyer to the curb you may wonder? Well, unfortunately both my proffession as well as DH's have been hit hard by the economic slump and right now the lawyer we have is all we can afford. I contacted several other lawyers back in November and December and each one was at least twice as expensive as ours. That means we're stuck :(
So, this is a call to all of my fellow adoptive mommies. Does anyone else have any recommendations on where I should start? I know the law varies from state to state but perhaps what you know may give me a place to start. I'm getting desperate here. Originally I wanted to have the adoption finalized by April for my birthday but now I think we are going to be lucky to finalize by June. If you have any suggestions let me know. If not (regardless of whether you are an adoptive mommy or not) we could use as many prayers as possible!
Thank you to everyone in advance! Here are some pictures of why this is all worth it:
River channeling his inner hippy playing drums, wearing nothing but his beanie.
The tasks he has been assigned: 1-Find out if we also need to send our fingerprints to the FBI and 2-Find out if we need to complete a home study.
Task 1 - FBI - According to our county's sheriff's department private adoptions only require Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) background checks. However, that is not what our lawyer told us in our last meeting. According to him (at that time at least, now he is unsure) we need to send copies of our fingerprints to both bureaus.
Task 2 - Home Study - This is something he told us he would look into from the beginning and here we are 10 months into working with him and we still don't know the answer to the question. If we do have to complete a home study that brings up even more questions such as who do we contact to complete the study? We don't have to have as thorough of a home study as we would have if we had gone through an agency. So do we contact a county social worker to set up the home study? Someone who works for an agency? Will we have to wait another two months to get answers to these questions? AAAGGGGHHHHH!
Why don't we kick our lawyer to the curb you may wonder? Well, unfortunately both my proffession as well as DH's have been hit hard by the economic slump and right now the lawyer we have is all we can afford. I contacted several other lawyers back in November and December and each one was at least twice as expensive as ours. That means we're stuck :(
So, this is a call to all of my fellow adoptive mommies. Does anyone else have any recommendations on where I should start? I know the law varies from state to state but perhaps what you know may give me a place to start. I'm getting desperate here. Originally I wanted to have the adoption finalized by April for my birthday but now I think we are going to be lucky to finalize by June. If you have any suggestions let me know. If not (regardless of whether you are an adoptive mommy or not) we could use as many prayers as possible!
Thank you to everyone in advance! Here are some pictures of why this is all worth it:
River channeling his inner hippy playing drums, wearing nothing but his beanie.
5 comments:
Great pics as always, boy he's a cutie!
Thanks, Rhiannon! I have become an amature photographer as of late because he is just so fun to take pictures of. Have you met with a lawyer on your potential private adoption yet? Just curious if you've found out anything about what you'd be in for.
I am thinking....
You most likely will need to send your fingerprints to the FBI. There should be both a State (2 State checks here in IN; I have no idea why?!) and FBI background check. Thankfully, since you are going through DA vs. IA, you get to skip the awful USCIS nightmare! Yes... another background check because 2 state check and the FBI check were not enough. UGH!
Your HS will have to be completed before the adoption can be finalized I believe. At least that's how I understand it. Although I know laws etc.. vary from state to state so I could be wrong.
Once you have a SW in place she/he should be able to help you with many (if not all) of your questions. You can go through a local agency or the state; I believe the state will be cheapest of course. Make some calls, any SW should be able to help you with many of the questions you have and you might be bale to toss your Esq. to the curb, or at least hire a more competent one off the recommendation of your SW.
Good luck. The little one makes all this legal nonsense worth though doesn't he? River is a doll, love the pics!
sorry Jill, I keep forgetting to click "email me with comments" I talked to my BIL and all he told me so far was that nothing had to be done until after we got the baby. BUT through CSS we'll need a backgroud check, fingerprints and all that,plus a homestudy.
I have had friends who have done private adoptions (although not in Colorado) and they always need a home study. Frankly I would be shocked if any state didn't require a home study. They are even required if you adopt a frozen embyro (which frankly is absurd to me). So I would contact a social worker and get started with that first. Unfortunately those aren't cheap BUT the good news is that the adoption tax credit is over 11K and I doubt between the lawyer and social worker your expenses will exceed that SO eventually your adoption shouldn't cost you a penny... not that he isn't worth every $$ spent of course!!!
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