Today Eric and I contacted a lawyer who will help us with all of the legal aspects of the adoption. We learned last week that we do not need to go through an adoption agency as we were first told. In Colorado, kinship adoptions by grandparents, brothers or sisters, and aunts and uncles are not required to use an agency. In fact, you don't even HAVE to hire a lawyer but because the forms are written in legal speak, which neither Eric nor I understand, we thought it best to go with an expert. One of the RN's I work with has a husband who is a lawyer. He is giving us a significant discount because I work with his wife. Compared to the >$7,000 we'd be paying the agency, the lawyer's fee of $500-$1000 seems quite reasonable. He said court fees in Colorado typically run up to $225, but we will also have to file adoption papers in California, since that is where the baby will be born, and he doesn't yet know what those will run us. Right now he is looking at the adoption statutes in California to see what kind of hoops we will have to jump through there. Because the adoption is being strongly supported by everyone involved, the process should be pretty easy. He had mentioned that in Colorado there is a right to grandparent visitation, which I said would be absolutely no problem at all. Eric and I will also be able to file a petition to waive our home study, which will be nice and save us additional money. I believe the home study was close to $1,500 and required multiple visits with a social worker before and after the baby is born. I completely understand the necessity for these things in any adoption other than a designated kinship adoption, but we didn't feel it was necessary in this case. Lori and Richard know what we are like and what kind of home we will provide and if they felt it wasn't right for the baby they never would have asked us to adopt in the first place. We figure the money we save on the home study can be put away for the baby and used for college later.
So, as it stands our lawyer will be researching the California side of things and will be in contact with us early next week to let us know what we need to do. He is sending us a packet in the mail that contains information pertaining to Colorado. It will be nice to finally have all of the paperwork started and get the process underway.
Eric and I plan to drive to California for Thanksgiving to visit family and see how everything is going. We will leave my car there and then fly back home. Ideally we'd love to be back in CA a few days before Lori delivers the baby, but this way if she goes into labor when we are still here in Colorado we can jump on a plane and fly out to CA. Lori will be term (37 weeks) at Thanksgiving so anything can go at that time!!! If the baby is born close to it's due date of December 16, the plan is to stay in CA until a couple of days after Christmas and then drive back home.
There's still 22 weeks to go, but I need to talk to my HR department about taking leave when the baby is born. I think I will be able to take the whole 12 weeks which is great. Eric and I will be able to pick a Pediatrician soon, and I think I already know who we want to go to. I have spoken to our insurance agency about medical coverage for the baby and they stated that coverage begins at the time that court preceedings begin. I don't know exactly what that means. Whether it means coverage begins at birth (physical custody of the baby) or when the adoption is actually finalized. We are insured through Eric's work, so he'll need to talk more to his HR rep to find out. If the baby will not be covered at birth by our insurance, we'll need to make sure we have money saved up for the hospital stay just in case.
Hopefully everything will go smoothly. The whole process is a little overwhelming with all of the things we still need to do and all of the paperwork that has to be done, and done right. I'm one of those who likes to make lists, and I have a list of the things we still need to do and will check them one at a time until everything is completed and we can finally relax!
I know December will be here before we know it! It has already been over a month since we decided to adopt, and it has flown by!
"Adoption is when a child grew in its mommy's heart instead of her tummy." ~Author Unknown
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