Question re: Michigan adoptions

Susan, our first adoption took ~12mo from when our paperwork was done until we brought our daughter home, but that included a match that failed after about 4 months of working with the potential birthmom. For our son, it took less than two weeks between when we submitted our updated homestudy and profile, and when we were matched with him. We brought him home (at 4 weeks old) 2 weeks later. A birthmother in MI cannot sign TPR less than 72hr after birth, but she can also take much longer if she needs the time. We had our daughter for 5 weeks as an at-risk placement (bmom hadn't TPR'd yet). There's an additional 6 month period of time between TPR and the finalization, but there is little risk at that point. Let me know if you have any questions. I didn't use Bethany, but we were very happy with our agency. Anita

Our daughter's adoption took three years total from the time we turned in the application to when we finalized. We had one match where the mom decided to parent after all when the baby was born about 11 months after we were approved.As for TPR, in Michigan they have to have a hearing to TPR in front of a judge (or a representative of the family court who then takes the papers to be signed by the judge). It goes a lot faster if they have the birthfather's presence or signature on a document saying he terminates his rights. The hearing can't happen until at least 72 hours after birth but it can take several weeks/months if the birthfather is unknown or won't come in and sign off, even if they don't seem to care whether the adoption takes place or not, as they both have to be served with papers prior to the court hearing. Our daughter's birthmom's hearing was about 12 weeks after birth because her birthfather did not sign off and was hard to find to be served notice. I'll pm you with that info. :)Erin

So if an EM is in Michigan and I go to the birth I could possibly be in Michigan for as long as a month? Could I take the baby home at Legal Risk? (not that I would!) Just wondering how it works there! In this particular case the dad is involved and consenting but how long does it take to have a hearing? 72 hours plus plus it just seems like a really long process compared to other states. The EM we are speaking with actually asked if she could give birth in our state! Is that common?

As far as how long it takes... that depends... on a lot of variables.DH & I were told, after we'd said we didn't care what race the baby was, that our wait will be short (under a year, but could be as little as 2 months).If you are looking for a white baby... the wait could easily be 2+ years.To us, it doesn't matter. However, we aren't willing to accept a baby that was exposed to drugs/alcohol... so our wait would be longer than somebody willing to accept that.I think it would also depend on the agency.

I was talking about consent after the birth of a child you are already planning to adopt. Sorry if I wasn't clear!

Our wait to adopt in Michigan was about 2 years. We also had a failed match prior to bringing home our daughter. As far as the relinquishment period, it was almost 2 months before our daughter's birth parents were able to go to court because the court in our county was very busy and couldn't get them in sooner. We finalized our daughter's adoption 6 months after that, when she was around 9 months old.

Dee were you able to leave the state during those two months? Or do you live there?

Our wait to adopt our daughter was seven months from home study approval to the day we brought her home.Her birthparents (married couple) went to court a month later. We were told the court hearing is normally about ten days after TPR is signed, but the birthparents went on vacation and we had to wait for them to come back.We'll have a home visit in July and we should finalize around the end of October.