Finalization ?

jewele803

How long did it take from time of placement until your finalization?  Our DD came home w/ us in early Jan and still no work on a date for finalization.  We have been frustrated w/ our attorney for many reasons and wish it could all just move along.  He initially told us we could expect to finalize in 8 weeks and we are WELL past that now!! 

 Our adoption was domestic...I'm sure internat'l is a whole different ball game.  From what we have been told, this is only a meeting and "photo opportunity" with the judge...but it's hard to keep being patient...

 Also, did you hire a photographer to come to court that day?  I was hoping to but can't make plans until we have a date...we also have family and friends that would like to attend but might need to plan time-off to attend court...it's just frustrating not know...

 

Dr.Loretta

It is our understanding that (in PA at least) the standard finalization timeline is 6 months from placement. During that time, there will be 3 post-placement visits and a report written up to recommend finalization. I was under the impression that it's a pretty set timeline...

Amy720

We adopted out of state in June 2007.  We had to do 5 post placement visits/Calls (2 visits/3 calls) and we did our last one in November.  We had our post placement report from the SW in mid-November.  Then we found out that the court house in Texas had lost all paperwork including the citation they sent to the potential BF and had to do everything again.  We didn't have the termination hearing in Texas until Mid December. 

We finally got to finalize in April 2008, 10 months after placement.  I think the average time is about 6 months.  Good Luck!

We found out about a month before we were due in court.  My parents and DH's parents were the only ones to attend.  They just asked us a few questions and Ben was so cute.  The judge said she could definitely see the bond Ben had with us.  We got our lawyer to take a picture of us with the judge.  In all (pictures too), we were in the judge's chambers for about 15 minutes.  We then had to go down and file everything with the courts and order the birth certificate.  This took a little while.

DBurket

In my state and in most (from what I understand) you can't finalize w/in six months of placement. We had to do monthly post placement visits or calls for five months after placement, and then our attorney could apply for a finalization date.

We adopted out of state in June and were originally scheduled to finalize in December, about 6.5 months after placement, but ran into some complications with our BF termination in Texas, so we ended waiting even longer before finalizing at the end of March.  Owen was almost 10 months when we finalized.

We had about three weeks notice before our hearing, so we were able to tell friends and family and have them come. We had both of our parents, siblings and a handful of really close friends there with us. Then we had more friends at our home for a celebration after. 

The hearing itself doesn't last too long - I'd say about 20 minutes. We had a good friend of ours there to take pictures. She isn't a "photographer" but the lighting is so bad in the courtrooms that I can't imagine even a professional could take that great of pictures w/o some serious set up, which wouldn't have been appropriate. We did a picture with our judge and our attorney in the courtroom and our friend took a few throughout the hearing. We did most of our pictures after the hearing in front of the courthouse.

 

LadyRed7

in NYS, it is 6-9 months.

kmkaull

We were told 6 months, with 3 post-placement visits.

jacksjerseygirl

jewele803:

we could expect to finalize in 8 weeks and we are WELL past that now!! 

 

That attorney was talking out of his a$$. Sorry. 8 weeks? We live in NJ and adopted from NY. The standard is 6-9 months.

How many post placement visits have you had thus far? How many were ordered before you could apply for finalization. Typically you have a post placement visit anywhere from every other 2 weeks to once a month, depending, to meet a certain number or time frame of SW attended visits before she provides a report for the court.

Sally J

Our situation is more a foster to adopt, but I'll share anyhow.  She came home Aug 1, 2008.  Rights were terminated Oct 20, 2008.  Adoption finalization May 20, 2009.  So we are just over 10 months after she came home.  We had some issues - we are in CA, but the adoption is taking place in CO.  Our adoption worker in CO suddenly quit a month before we were supposed to finalize (March 16, 2009), so everything got delayed.  I think on average it's much longer than 8 weeks.

jewele803

Thanks for all of the responses...I did not feel right about the 8 weeks we were initially told.  We have monthly visits w/ our social worker and she also has inquired if we had any updates as far as finalization which was making me think we should know more...I guess I just need to be patient a little while longer!