Once legally free how long does it take?

with our first foster to adopt, we had placement june 2004, TPR March 2005, and then sw lost paperwork to file adoption and we went through shuffle after shuffle and finally finalized October 3rd. our next one was placed in June 2005, TPR and relinguishment happened September 30, it will be read into court next week and then we are told we will able to file adoption within 30 days. We are told adoption should be final by the end of the year. That will put us right at the 6 month mark and I'm told it will be okay. We're waiting!

We are waiting for a court date as well. We were placed with Damian on 6-18-04 and the birthmothers rights were terminated on 11-23-04, but she appealed to the Superior Court. The the waiting began!! The Superior court affirmed the decision on July 29, 2005, then we had to wait the 30 days to see if she was going to appeal to the Supreme court and she didn't, thank God. Now we are waiting for all the paperwork to be filed. Our CW is doing the paperwork for the "petition to adopt" today and I think that is the last part before we get a court date. I hope it's soon. Can anyone tell me how much time this should take.

Here in Michigan, the standard (so we are told) time frame for adoption is a year from start to finish (with a few exceptions.) We find ourselves in this situation: The children were placed Nov/03. TPR was done 0ct/05. Our foster caseworker said she will hand over the file to the adoption caseworker in Dec/05 (and although she has no say who it will be, she will try to pull some strings to get a 'fast' one, as the children have waited long enough.) She said to expect first contact with the adoption caseworker in January/06 (after the holidays). We will have to go through another homestudy, bio reports, background checks, and health studies. Because the children have already lived with us almost two years, we will not have to wait the six month waiting period. If everything goes right, we should be able to adopt anywhere from Sept/06 to Nov/06. We are hoping for November, as that would mark 3 years since we got them, our wedding anniversary is in November, and National Adoption month is November! Not to mention Thanksgiving - as we have a lot to be thankful for - but that is a no-brainer!

The wait is on for us also. Placed 05/02, Tpr 10/04.... long appeal,10/05 Sw retired,11/05 Adoption paper work just beginning, tic, toc............... :grr: It's a long wait for us but We're enjoying our little blessing as we wait. :flower:

I last posted in August - we still don't have a finalization date yet and it's now December!!! The county that has custody of dd is not known to be quick on these things. She was placed with us 4/03, TPR was 6/05, filed paperwork for finalization with clerk of courts just yesterday. Finalization should be by April of 06. :clap: Funny thing is, we have a second placement through same state but different county. Placement was 10/05, TPR 11/05, paperwork already filed with court for finalization. :cheer: Finalization date will be in May 06 due to our state's mandatory 6 month waiting period. Unbelievable how 1 county away can be so much different! Karen

I guess it all depends on the state, county, and the sw. Our little guy was placed with us on 10/03, TPR 10/04, he became legally free (after appeal) 11/05 and we hope to finalize 2/06. Our sw started all the paper work before he was legally free, so it should not be long. I can't wait till he is ours.

Our girl came to us free and clear and was placed about 3.5 months ago. We finalise in April. So, for us it will take about 7 months. I understand that about 6 months is pretty normal, but it all depends on the state and county. Backlogs in the courts can cause issues I guess.

Our boys were placed with us June of 2004. Termination SHOULD be granted February15 2006 and we have been told we will be very lucky if they are finalized by fall. The way things have been going we expect delays of many kinds.

My wife and I are in the process of adopting and are in the transition process. The child (19 months) is in the foster care system. Right now the child gets to stay at our home 4 nights and the foster parents 3 nights. This has been going on since July first. My question is how long should this take before the child is placed permanently in our home? All paperwork on our part is taken care of. The child seems to be transitioning okay. He has become clingier at both homes but no other serious red flags.

For us in Ontario, M was placed with us at 3 weeks of age in April 04. Parents tpr was May 05. Adoption was final July 06.

When our youngest daughter transitioned, she was 9 months old. They had us visit at the foster home 2 times, once for an hour, a week later once for 2 hours. Then we took her out on our own for an hour a week after that. Then we had her for 3 hours. A week later, we brought her home to stay. They said they felt it would be more traumatic to drag it out any further.

we got jalen at 3 days old tpr was done at two years old and dad sighn for only us to adoped the case worker toke there sweet time to get us a court date. I am glad we are done now we were finall in march of 2006 april birth mom of 3 and adoped mom of two three years old

Our son was placed with us in October 2004 at 8 months old. He was supposed to stay 2 weeks. In October 2005 dad was determined through DNA to not really be the dad. In January 2006 mom signed voluntary relinquishment. In February we started mediation with bmom to establish open adoption. In June 2006 we called it quits and told adoption worker to go ahead with closed adoption. In August 2006 we were finalized. Our adoption worker told us that we went extremely fast....most kids in our state don't get adopted until after being in care for 2 years. Our 6 month waiting period was waived because we had already had him for so long.

Our son was placed in our home on December 1st 2005. He was 4 days old. His mom surrendered in August, and he was adopted May1 2006..We are adopting our daughter next monday,,She was placed in out home This past december at 3 days old,, This process went very quickley because they already had the paperwork done from our son so they were able to us alot of the same paperwork..We were just very blessed and Lucky! Jen

I think that depends on the state you live in. In NE, we must have the child for six months in the home before the adoption can be finalized.