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Originally Posted By ShellieI am looking for help , any information would be so helpful. I am in the process of adopting my sisters baby. Her( my sister ) and the birth father have given up their parental rights, but...according to my lawyer, we have to go through with a home study. If this is all consentual. Than why must I go through with all the extra details. It is all mutual. She wants me to have her. It is costing more money than I expected. And it is still adding up. I read somewhere about in family adoptions, the home study is almost always waived. Does anyone know of any sites that can help me? To find something to rush the process along. They tell me the home study can take up to 6 months. Please help me.
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Hi Shellie,
I myself adopted both of my sisters girls. Depending on the laws in each state, depending where you live. Here's a short version of my story.
I adopted the first neice through pro-se. (meaning you do the adoption yourself and get help on certain paper work through the courts). I had everything including the consent from my sister to allow me to adopt. There was no need for the homestudy since the state was not involved in the agreement between my sister and I. It just took the small length of time to do the neccessary paperwork and filing and of course, see the judge for him/her to grant the adoption. NO COMPLICATIONS!!!!
The second adoption, however, went through Florida DCF. We went through homestudys after homestudys and kept getting turned down to adopt my other neice (to keep both girls together). We hired a lawyer, went through the administrative process (appeal) and 2 days before the administrative hearing, the state decided they didn't have a strong enough case why we shouldn't adopt and went ahead and agreed to the adoption. They kept coming up with different sets of reasons not to allow the adoption. TWO YEAR BATTLE WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES and the ordeal was finally over.
Now that i'm trying to adopt my 2 step children which I have been helping my husband raise for the past 8 years with no help from the mother, the laws regarding adoption have changed so dramatically that it's nearly impossible to adopt without paying thousands to a lawyer to do the adoption. It's plain and simple ABANDONMENT. Any tips on how to proceed to make these children legally mine, please send message.:(