Whats the whole process of adoption?

Question

In Los Angeles county, what do you have to go through, how long does it take, and what are the expenses?

Answer 1

REEEEALLY EXPENSIVE:@ IT HURTS THE ADOPTEE:@

Answer 2

We adopted in Riverside county and the laws are statewide so I'd imagine its all the same

1) Get an attorney!.....don't do anything else first....we used Randy Hicks in Riverside that does nothing but adoptions and he was wonderful, www.randall-hicks.com, could not say enough good about him.  If he won't take you then he will refer you to someone

2) Lots of stuff with the state, you have to get investigated and background checked, fingerprinted and such

3) Find someone to adopt, this can be domestic or international.  If international you can expect lots of c**p from their gov and lots of bribes/payments but its fast.  Domestic your attorney can help you find an expectent mother or existing child.  

4) Once you have found someone follow the attorney in what to do and get the parents to sign the right forms and the kid is yours

5) Get investigated some more by the gov including a study of your home and relationship to spouse

6 ) After about 1 year with your new one you go to court and in front of a judge finalize it (we called it our "forever day!") and yer all done, a new birth certificate will be issued with you as the parent and the orginals will be sealed and stored

It can get complicated with issues like native americans, foreign, known and unknown  fathers.....

Could not say enough that you need an adoption attorney, someone that just does that and nothing else.  You do NOT need an adopton agency or facilitator, they will just take your money and lots of it

Costs...depends on your situation, probably $5-10k for lawyers and such, add to that anything where you "help" the mother with expense before birth (we did that) and add to that search expenses in finding a baby.

Our son was done in CA and we put up the mom for 3 months before and 3 months after the pregnancy, that with the seach and lawyers got to be around $15k, all of which can be a credit on your federal, so it can be nearly free after a year or two

Our daughter was actually birthed by one of wife's sisters so all we paid was minor lawyers fees and medicals, came out to less than $5k but that is an exception

Please contact an adoption attorney....they are THE resource you need

Good luck, we love our adopted ones