Guardianship to Adoption

February 25, 2010

mmpaine

Hello,

I am looking for some insight and maybe find someone who has been in this situation before. My husband and I got guardianship of my niece when she was born 3 years ago. We now want to adopt her. We live in California and I know the adoption process is lenthy and hard, but with us already having guardianship for so long, do we need to go through all the normal formalities. All parties consent to everything

I adopted one of my boys following 3 years of guardianship- in this case, his mother had died. Having done adoptions both through state adoptions, and privately- the private (post guardianship adoption) still requires a home study in California- it is done by California State adoptions, and they charge heftily for it- although all the adoption expenses are tax deductible.

I had a private attorney do the filing, the home study was very similar to that done on an agency adoption- total cost for me was about $7,500- although I got virtually all of it back at tax time. I would highly recommend having an attorney in this process, but its very doable, and very worthwhile- a little more work and upfront expense than through state adoptions, but very worthwhile in the long run. Good luck