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Hi! We recently adopted a beautiful baby boy from Texas and we live in California. We are having a lot of issues with accurate information....I feel like everyday someone is asking for another $1k for something else that no one told us about having to do.... My question is where did you finalize? We were told that finalization in Texas was super easy and included in our Texas agency cost. NOPE! We are now being told it's about $2k and have to travel back to Texas for the finalization. We can also finalize in California, but now I'm afraid they'll make us jump through hoops like they did for our pre-finalization in Texas, just to say, oh wait, you can't finalize here or we need another $10k to complete! Any advice would be MUCH MUCH appreciated. I don't like my California lawyer and everyone I talk to seems to only know about their state, and not how the two states interact. So what am I paying them for!? Thanks! Jessica
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We adopted from Texas, but to Indiana not California. For all of ours we could have finalized in TX but it would have required a trip back as Texas law states a child should be in your home 6 months before finalization (although there is at least one judge who waives that requirement on a regular basis and does it at 3 months). We chose to finalize in Indiana, where the cost was about the same as hiring an attorney in TX and we didn't have to pay to travel. Have you called a AAAA attorney who specializes in interstate adoptions? They should be able to answer your questions.
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Greetings from Sunny California!! First, Congratulations to your Family!! I can't tell from your Posting honestly?? If you Adopted your son Domestically, or through the State Of Texas Foster Care System please?? Also, do you have any type of Contractual Retainer Agreement with your Attorney?? I am very curious also with who the Attorney is?? There is also a State of California Adoption Board in Sacramento, California. Have you tried either emailing or telephoning the State Adoption Board with your questions?? We have Finalized Foster to Adopt using Online Forms Texas to California. For us as a Family, it was a very simple process!! There was no money or fee involved, but Domestic Adoption may be totally or way different in direction with regards to Finalization??
Termination of parental rights and finalization fees are typically not worked into agency fees - shame if indeed someone hide that from you. We worked with AAAA attorneys (as previous posters said) who worked a flat fee. Sure you may lose money if it only took 25 billable hours and the flat fee is the rate for 30 hours but in our case with DD adoption we had a problem and "saved" money bc we went with the flat rate. I would suggest making phone calls independently for your home state. I did that and both of the in state attorneys said "finalize in birth state" and gave reasons. It was a quick phone call and gave reassurance. I hope things get better with your agency. I would really want clarification even if it was something that I overlooked. If you don't get help, take the time to review the agency so that others after you are informed. Best of luck and congrats on your match/placement!
Termination of parental rights and finalization fees are typically not worked into agency fees - shame if indeed someone hide that from you. We worked with AAAA attorneys (as previous posters said) who worked a flat fee. Sure you may lose money if it only took 25 billable hours and the flat fee is the rate for 30 hours but in our case with DD adoption we had a problem and "saved" money bc we went with the flat rate. I would suggest making phone calls independently for your home state. I did that and both of the in state attorneys said "finalize in birth state" and gave reasons. It was a quick phone call and gave reassurance. I hope things get better with your agency. I would really want clarification even if it was something that I overlooked. If you don't get help, take the time to review the agency so that others after you are informed. Best of luck and congrats on your match/placement!
We actually do have a AAAA lawyer in our home state, he even once was the president of the California adoption one. He is awful and hasn't given us accurate info yet. He's the one who told us to finalize in Texas where we wouldn't have to appear. When I called him out on it he just blamed the Texas agency for him not doing his job and actually researching. Shouldn't he know about finalizing in other states after doing this for 40 years?
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We were living in California when we adopted our daughter who was born in Texas. We did not have a CA attorney. Once we were matched (it was an independent adoption), our facilitator in CA connected us to an attorney with an agency in Texas. From that point on, we only dealt with the attorney and the social worker in Texas through that agency. We finalized in Texas...my husband flew to Dallas for 24 hours for the finalization. All of the costs were laid out to us by our attorney in advance - so we knew what to expect. The only additional costs were my husband's flight and hotel stay. If you want to PM me, I can go into more detail. It was 2 years ago...trying to recall all of the logistics is tough, but I will do my best. :)