Archives for October 2019

How to Know You’re Ready to Adopt

Signs You’re Ready to Adopt

The adoption process isn’t easy, but it’s also a rewarding one where you add a new member to your family. Each year, about 140,000 children are adopted in the U.S. If you want to adopt a child but aren’t sure if you’re ready, you’ll need to take stock and figure out a few things about yourself before you start the process of formally adopting a child.

You’ve Moved on From Infertility

You should consider adoption if you know you’ve accepted your infertility and moved on from it. It can be challenging to welcome a new child into the home if you’re still trying to get pregnant and you’re going through expensive IVF treatments. Although it’s normal to experience grief after finding out you’re infertile, you should have closure to ensure that you’re in a good place and you’re fully embracing your decision to adopt. You can consider meeting with a marriage counselor to ensure that you have closure and are in a positive frame of mind to adopt.

You’re Financially Secure

There are many different resources that you’ll need to provide everything that a child requires to grow and thrive. You should have consistent employment for several years to ensure that you can provide financially. You’ll also need to be able to afford legal fees, additional medical costs, and adoption agency fees. It’s also important to live in a home where there’s enough room for the child to grow with enough space where they can play. An added benefit is if you live in proximity to family members and friends who can offer assistance with child care when it’s needed.

You Understand the Challenges Ahead

Although adopting a child can be incredibly rewarding and life-changing, it still comes with its challenges. Before you begin the adoption process, it’s essential to know that you’re ready for the uncertainty you may encounter. Consider speaking with someone who has already adopted for insight on their experience and how they navigated the difficulties. You and your spouse should be mentally stable and financially capable of dealing with stress that can come about. These stressors can include the birth parents changing their minds before or after the birth. Many states have a waiting period after the child is born, and the adoption can fall through during this time. Also, if both birth parents don’t initially sign off on the adoption, such as if the birth father cannot be located before the birth, then the birth father may later contest the adoption even after the initial waiting period has expired. Having a solid support system of family members and friends can make the ups and downs easier to handle.

You’re Patient

Not only do challenges come with adopting, but the process of finding the right child to adopt can also be time-consuming and lengthy. Adopting a child costs an average of $10,000 to $30,000 and can take one to two years to complete. International adoption costs $20,000 to $50,000 and takes one to six years. You’ll also need to consider hiring a New Jersey adoption attorney who can assist you with the process and inform you of your rights. If any complications or issues occur, you can be represented by a lawyer who has experience and can find solutions.

You Can Fully Love the Child

It’s important to know if you can fully love an adoptive child who is not your biological child once they’re in your care. You should be excited about caring for the child even if you didn’t give birth to him or her. You should be ready to accept the child as your own and be prepared to meet their emotional and physical needs each day as their parent and caregiver.

Contact Cofsky & Zeidman in Haddonfield at (856) 429-5005 or in Woodbury at (856) 845-2555 to learn more about the adoption process. Obtaining assistance from our New Jersey adoption attorney can help you with understanding your rights in advance.

How Long Does It Take to Adopt a Child?

How Fast Can You Finalize an Adoption?

Each year, roughly 135,000 children are adopted. Of course, the hundreds of thousands of parents involved want to know when the process will finally be over. Finalizing an adoption is an exciting time, so it is no wonder that so many people want to speed through the adoption and get to the end.

The Fastest Possible Adoption Finalization Time

Legally speaking, an adoption in Pennsylvania can be finalized in as little as one to two months after the child first comes to live with their family. This is assuming that everything goes as smoothly as possible. For the most part, a voluntary or a stepchild adoption will go the fastest. The process starts with the adoptive parents filing a report of intention to adopt. Then, after meeting a few requirements, they need to file a petition for adoption and then have an adoption period.

Most of the wait in these situations is just due to the amount of time it takes to schedule a court date. Typically, an adoption only happens this quickly in situations where all parties agree to the terms, such as a stepparent adopting a child with no legal father and when the adoption does not involve interstate or international factors. The amount of time you should expect it to take can vary quite a bit depending on the circumstances of the adoption.

The Timeline for Adopting a Baby

The timeline for adopting a baby is fairly straightforward once you find a birth mother who wants to let you adopt her child. Unlike other types of adoption, you usually do not have to wait to be approved to foster or complete multiple supervisory visits after the child comes home. Since you can file a lot of the paperwork like home study reports before the baby is even born, the process is fairly fast once the infant comes to live with you.

When figuring out how long it takes to adopt a baby in Pennsylvania, the main factors are the revocation period and the time it takes to schedule court dates. Legally, birth parents have three days to change their minds. If you work with an adoption agency, however, it may have different guidelines in place. Some have so many requirements that it can take up to a year to finalize.

The Time It Takes to Adopt a Foster Child

Adopting a foster child may take a shorter or a longer amount of time than it takes to adopt an infant. The length of time it takes to go from fostering to adoption varies so much because circumstances tend to vary. After you get approved and begin fostering a child with the intent to adopt, things can go quite quickly if the parents’ rights are already terminated. In these cases, you may be finalizing your foster child’s adoption within about six months.

However, most adoptive parents of foster children are not this lucky. In many cases, they have to announce their intent to adopt formally and then go about terminating the biological parents’ rights. When the parent does not want to voluntarily give up their rights, it can turn into a lengthy process that involves a PA adoption attorney submitting evidence to the court that the biological parent is unfit.

How to Speed up the Process

Because unexpected legal delays can lengthen the adoption process, you need to have a good PA adoption attorney available to guide you through the process. Having an experienced adoption lawyer on your side can help your adoption go as smoothly as possible. With an office conveniently located in Philadelphia, the law firm of Cofsky & Zeidman is happy to help the residents of Pennsylvania with adoptions. Call us at (215) 563-2150 or fill out our online contact form to schedule your free consultation today.