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Before we finalized the adoption, I asked SW if she could provide me with names of older half siblings, and any contact info she might have for any relatives. DH and I would like to have a semi-open adoption so the kids can know their famiily if/when they want to. SW said that she would try to have that by court last week. I sent her an email last week and a follow up this week requesting the info. I still haven't heard anything. Will there be any way to get this info? Or are we most likely going to be out of luck?
I have tried facebook and myspace without any luck along with a google search.
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The only other possibility might be if the info is somewhere in the kids' file. You should have a right to view their file since you are adopting. It might be in there somewhere in an e-mail or memo or something. We reviewed a file for a one of our placements and were able to see lots of little tid-bits of info like that. But in my state, you do have to request to see the file before adoption because after adoption it is sealed, and it almost takes an act of God to get it unsealed.
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lol... we have "copies" of their files. If I kept paperwork the way their DCS file was kept I would be out of a job. Our agency copied it for us, so I trust that they gave us everything that was in the DCS file... which is just sad. We have more copies of medical records while in care, school records, permanency plans that we were given copies of, etc than what is in their file. The good things we got were lots of copies of the CPS reports from our state as well as other states. There is unfortunately almost no info on either parent. Sigh. Maybe birth records from the hospital will be helpful when we get them.
Oh Yeah.... maybe there will be some notes somewhere in the medical records that might prove useful. When we requested our AD's medical records, the person told me it will take a little longer than usual because they will have to redact anything to do with bio family in there. Well, I got the records in the mail three days later, (I can't believe they didn't charge me postage for that!) but with what appeared to be no redaction. Bio mom and dad's name and address was mentioned in there as well as bio aunt, and her address info at the time, who served as the guarantor on the account (Not sure why she did instead of mom, but it doesn't suprise me knowing her.)
ETA: I am thinking you did not get the whole file either! There is no way with as long as they were in care, that is all that was in the file. We reviewed one file for a placement we were considering adopting and we went to the DCS office and sat in a conference room to review their files. They brought in two bankers boxes of information. Granted they were in care for about 4 or 5 years then and there was a file for each of the two children. But still- the files contained what appeared to be every e-mail sent to the CW from FP, therapists, etc as well as documentation of them trying to locate family. It also included a summary of every court date and all the "legal stuff" such as when they decided to change the goal from RU to Adoption and the grounds for that etc. It even had pictures of the kids when they were younger that various foster families or the bio family may have sent to the CW. It was A LOT of info.
Our AD's file was not that big however. Her file consisted of one expanded file, very thick, but nothing really for the foster care world. But parent's were pretty much MIA, most of the time, and her case was relatively short (well for foster care anyway).
icehockey101
Before we finalized the adoption, I asked SW if she could provide me with names of older half siblings, and any contact info she might have for any relatives.