Pro Se Stepparent Adoption Finalized!!!

Where did you locate the forms? I have seen some around the forums but they are from 2004 and I'm not sure if they are outdated or the most current. The Distict clerks office is not helping me at all! Everytime I ask if they have a form they tell me to hire a lawyer.

Yeah they are really no help and willl try to convince you to hire a lawyer. I got all my forms through reliableadoptions.com for around $360.00 and they also helped me through everything kind of like a legal aid. Hope this information helps.

Did they charge you additional for the legal aid? I am filing pro se after an attorney stole our money. I believe I have completed eveerything correctly, but this is so important and makes me very nervous.

okay kalijasmine, just thought of more questions =) I am SO happy for you, btw - CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Firstly, where are you located? I am wondering how long everything takes from the date I file the four original documents? We hope to do this tomorrow. Secondly, did they require a home study for you? I was told by one attorney "always" and another "only if ordered on step-child adoption" - and if you were required to do it, was it expensive? Someone told me that could cost an additional $1500! Though I have heard elsewhere just a couple hundred. After already losing money with a bad attorney we are trying to figure out exactly how much more everything else is going to cost to make sure we can get that all together right away! Thank you!!!

We are in Brazoria county. I am sorry about you losing money to lawyers. That must be extremely frustrating. The legal aid I recevied was from the place I got my documents online and they communicated via e-mail. They helped enough to get through the process. We had to have a lawyer for our daughter, a lawyer for the missing parent, and a home study. I had to have the lawyer for the child because we are doing a termination and it is completely up to the judge. That was $500. We had to have the lawyer for the missing parent because it was a termination and she looks for the missing parent and if he cannot be found still then the adoption proceeds as did mine. That cost $750.00. Our social worker cost us 2 visits of $400 each for a total of $800 but that is up to the court and the social worker. All the courts operate differently. Here is a description of our expenses. 1. Cost for paperwork: $360. 2. Cost to file paperwork: $360.00 3. Homestudy: $800.00 4. Citation by publication (for citing missing parent in newspaper): $198.00 5. Ad litem for child: $500. 6. Ad litem for respondent: $750.00 Our expenses were still cheaper than using a lawyer. Hope this information was helpful.

Here is our Pro Se Stepparent Adoption experience in Texas [url=http://texasmamakjnc.wordpress.com/2014/05/22/pro-se-texas-stepparent-adoption-my-experience/]Pro Se Texas Stepparent Adoption-My Experience | Pro Se Texas Stepparent Adoption-My Experience[/url]