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Hi,My wife and I are planning to adopt her sister's baby, who will be born in Ann Arbor Michigan. We live in California, and we are wondering if we can do a pre-birth order to have the birth certificate list us as parents, or whether we will have to go through the adoption proceeding. Any info or recommendations on that, and/or how to arrange for a home study in CA would be great.Thanks!Steve
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We live in MI and adopted in MI. A few things will be different because you have to follow the Interstate Compact on Placement of Children (ICPC) - I think that's the official name.
You will need a homestudy. My advice to you is to contact an adoption agency or adoption attorney in order to handle things legallly on your end.
In Michigan, the only person who can "sign off" prior to birth is any potential birthfather and a legal father through marriage. Technically their rights are not terminated until the hearing after birth, but having them "sign" prior to birth does speed up the process some.
The mom, once the child is born, has the ability to sign paperwork allowing the child to be placed with you, or in interim care, until the termination of parental rights (TPR) hearing, generally 3-6 weeks after birth but can be longer (ours was 12 weeks after birth but our daughter's birthfather did not sign off prior to birth). Once the TPR hearing is done, there will be legal paperwork that needs to be filed between MI and CA before the baby will be allowed to leave the state.
Your sister-in-law should get some counseling prior to making a final decision about placing. I would advise her to find an independent pregnancy counselor who can help look rationally and objectively at the options of parenting vs. placing.
You might also want to talk with her about how things will work in terms of a relationship between her, you and the baby.
Legally, the baby is your sister-in-law's and the birthfather's until the TPR hearing, she or he or both can choose to parent until that hearing is over.
Good luck and feel to ask more questions. No matter what is posted on here, always talk to a lawyer or an adoption agency about all the legalities :)
Erin
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Where in CA are you? We are in CA and have adopted domestically from other states. You need a home study and will have to do the ICPC stuff. We have an EXCELLENT home study agency. We are in the Bay Area. If you are not in this area, there are lots of places to to.... PM me if you want to let me know where you are and I can give you some recommendations... R