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We are in San Bernardino County. We filed a petition for my husband to adopt my son in January 2013. We had orientation in March. We gathered forms/documents/references/consent/etc, did the livescan, and finished all other required paperwork in June. We finished paying off the fees last week.
How much longer? We still need an interview/homestudy, a report from that, then a court date. I'm waiting on a call back from the social worker for more answers, but that takes a while. We only have one stepparent adoption social worker in this county.
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Update:Our home visit is just a few days away. Social worker said 6-8 weeks to get the report from that. She will call us to tell us when our copy is in the mail. Once we get our copy, we wait one week for the court to receive their copy and place it in the file, then we call the court to schedule the court date.She said normally people would require two court dates, one for termination of bio's parental rights and another for the adoption. This does not apply to us because we have consent, so we only need one hearing, which will be the finalization hearing.I will update after our home visit.
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We had our home visit. It went well. Social worker talked to me and my spouse, mostly just going over the paperwork we had already turned in and verifying info, proofreading the request for new birth certificate, and signing my consent.She asked what the "new parent" and child enjoy doing together. Also asked what does the child understand about the adoption, then moved on to a solo interview with the child. She asked what our family enjoys together, what the child enjoys, etc. Nothing really specific. She took a tour of our home and then left :)
I do feel that the questions were age-appropriate. They were also adjusted to the child's level of understanding about the adoption. The San Bernardino county social worker was very good at adjusting the interview to the child's needs and attention span.We are still waiting on our final report. Social Worker said about 8 weeks, so we should get it soon.
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It went FAST! We were called in, not by name & not listed anywhere (this concerned some of our family, as they forgot the dept # and the clerk told them we had no case).
We got to talk to the staff for that courtroom and "play" around in there. We took lots of pictures while we waited to be called back to chambers. It was really fun goofing off in the courtroom.
Back in chambers, things were a bit more serious. We had to take a quick oath (bio, step/adoptive, and child). Lots more pictures. Child signed adoption agreement, though it wasn't required due to age. Bio & step signed it also.
Judge Smith signed the order, said congrats to everyone, took pictures with us, then we were sent back to the courtroom. Waited for our copies, went downstairs to file them with the clerk, then we walked out.
Less than an hour, including all of the hallway wait times!
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