It's adoption time!

[D-Ric902]

We adopted our darling girl July 19, 2011 (gotcha day)
congrats and blessings to you

 

[eric001]

Congrats, Doc! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful family with yet another young'in. That is truly a gift from the heart...and a gift to all the hearts involved, too!!

 

[Rocdenindy]

Congratulations to you and your family.

My wife and I adopted both our kids through foster care. There are definitely days that they give me tons of gray hairs but I love them. They are my kids and nothing is going to change that now that they have, as we call it, their piece of paper.

 

[jesse485]

Very cool, I will probably be in the same boat with one of my foster sons very soon.

 

[hooky]

Congratulations

 

[Slawburger]

Congrats!

 

[IndyDave1776]

Congratulations!

 

[cmr13]

Congrats! All 3 of my sisters are adopted!

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

congrats, doc.

 

[ultra...good]

Congrats and thank you so much for what you are doing. There are a lot of kids out there that need good parents.

 

[Bennettjh]

Congratulations! Looks like a happy family!

 

[Gadgetmonster]

That is a beautiful thing you have done. Very big hearted.

 

[Magneto]

If anyone is interested in adoption here is the list of waiting kids in Indiana.

Meet Indiana's Waiting Children

 

[atvdave]

Congrats... My niece & nephew just become licensed foster parents.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Thanks for all the kind words. It's amazing how when you mention adoption you learn how many of those around you have been touched by it as well.

Our quick story: my wife has always wanted to adopt even before we were married. She can't say why, just always has wanted to. I honestly didn't think it was in my future and made no efforts to learn much about it. We had two boys and were in the process of deciding whether to have another with the hope of having a girl or whether to look at adoption. I still wasn't excited about pursuing adoption and wanted a little 'mini-me' of my wife. One day we heard that someone close to us had a baby, and there was no way she was going to be able to raise it, for several reasons. The child had some health issues that were corrected but still needed monitoring. We were concerned something bad was going to happen to the child unintentionally and that's when it hit me that we needed to adopt her. My wife and I basically came to the same conclusion independently, about five minutes after hearing that she existed. There were discussions about using an agency to place her with a family locally and we tossed our name into the hat for consideration. The birth mother was thrilled that we were interested as it would allow her to likely remain close as well. We drove out to meet her in Ohio between two of my shifts at work when she was five weeks old. We still weren't 100% sure we were going to adopt her but were strongly considering it. While holding her my wife looked so happy and then it was pretty much decided. We asked when she was born, and it turns out that is the same day as our anniversary. God didn't need to make it any clearer that she was going to be our daughter. We talked on the way home and decided to proceed with adoption. She was brought to our house the next week at age six weeks (sleeping through the night already!) and has been with us ever since.

We had spoken with an Kelly Myhls at Hanley Myhls Attorneys at Law prior to going to Ohio to see what we needed to ask and things to consider for this situation. She was very helpful and spent a lot of time on an informal basis on the phone. After getting her (Grace) we got the guardianship papers signed quickly by both parents. They also signed adoption paperwork that day but we wanted to nail the guardianship down first to get her on our insurance for the ongoing medical care she needed, though it was pretty minimal by then. Once we had the guardianship we felt as if we were her parents and knew we'd do the adoption later. We were a bit slow in getting this final part done. We used Protect Our Children (Protect Our Children) as our home study company. They were great with letting us know the steps to complete. Fingerprints, background checks, criminal record statements from the sheriff, personal references, financial statements, etc. We had the home study which was basically an interview and a quick tour of the home. She then submitted it to the state and our attorney filed the petition for adoption. About six weeks later we had a court date and the rest is history.

I can't remember exact fees, but the guardianship was around $2500 I think. There was a decent amount of time spent talking to the parents and arranging the meetings, paperwork, etc which raised that cost. The adoption portion I believe was $1450 or so along with a filing fee of $275 or so for Marion County.

I know many people have spent years trying to adopt, and we know several couples going through it right now. Our particular situation could not have been easier and the delays were all due to us not completing our steps in a timely fashion.

I can say that adoption is a fantastic thing. Kids need parents. They don't need super parents, they really just need someone to care about them and for them. If you are considering adoption, definitely talk to people about it. If there's interest I can potentially work to organize a meeting with folks who have gone through international adoption, local adoption, family adoption, a home study company, and perhaps our lawyer we used. There is a lot of misinformation out there, and not every adoption is expensive or time consuming. Firearm ownership only came up once when I asked our attorney if it would be an issue for the home study and was told it's my constitutional right and it won't be an issue.

Feel free to hit me up with any questions and I'll answer as best I can.

 

[Bennettjh]

Thanks for all the kind words. It's amazing how when you mention adoption you learn how many of those around you have been touched by it as well.

Our quick story: my wife has always wanted to adopt even before we were married. She can't say why, just always has wanted to. I honestly didn't think it was in my future and made no efforts to learn much about it. We had two boys and were in the process of deciding whether to have another with the hope of having a girl or whether to look at adoption. I still wasn't excited about pursuing adoption and wanted a little 'mini-me' of my wife. One day we heard that someone close to us had a baby, and there was no way she was going to be able to raise it, for several reasons. The child had some health issues that were corrected but still needed monitoring. We were concerned something bad was going to happen to the child unintentionally and that's when it hit me that we needed to adopt her. My wife and I basically came to the same conclusion independently, about five minutes after hearing that she existed. There were discussions about using an agency to place her with a family locally and we tossed our name into the hat for consideration. The birth mother was thrilled that we were interested as it would allow her to likely remain close as well. We drove out to meet her in Ohio between two of my shifts at work when she was five weeks old. We still weren't 100% sure we were going to adopt her but were strongly considering it. While holding her my wife looked so happy and then it was pretty much decided. We asked when she was born, and it turns out that is the same day as our anniversary. God didn't need to make it any clearer that she was going to be our daughter. We talked on the way home and decided to proceed with adoption. She was brought to our house the next week at age six weeks (sleeping through the night already!) and has been with us ever since.

We had spoken with an Kelly Myhls at Hanley Myhls Attorneys at Law prior to going to Ohio to see what we needed to ask and things to consider for this situation. She was very helpful and spent a lot of time on an informal basis on the phone. After getting her (Grace) we got the guardianship papers signed quickly by both parents. They also signed adoption paperwork that day but we wanted to nail the guardianship down first to get her on our insurance for the ongoing medical care she needed, though it was pretty minimal by then. Once we had the guardianship we felt as if we were her parents and knew we'd do the adoption later. We were a bit slow in getting this final part done. We used Protect Our Children (Protect Our Children) as our home study company. They were great with letting us know the steps to complete. Fingerprints, background checks, criminal record statements from the sheriff, personal references, financial statements, etc. We had the home study which was basically an interview and a quick tour of the home. She then submitted it to the state and our attorney filed the petition for adoption. About six weeks later we had a court date and the rest is history.

I can't remember exact fees, but the guardianship was around $2500 I think. There was a decent amount of time spent talking to the parents and arranging the meetings, paperwork, etc which raised that cost. The adoption portion I believe was $1450 or so along with a filing fee of $275 or so for Marion County.

I know many people have spent years trying to adopt, and we know several couples going through it right now. Our particular situation could not have been easier and the delays were all due to us not completing our steps in a timely fashion.

I can say that adoption is a fantastic thing. Kids need parents. They don't need super parents, they really just need someone to care about them and for them. If you are considering adoption, definitely talk to people about it. If there's interest I can potentially work to organize a meeting with folks who have gone through international adoption, local adoption, family adoption, a home study company, and perhaps our lawyer we used. There is a lot of misinformation out there, and not every adoption is expensive or time consuming. Firearm ownership only came up once when I asked our attorney if it would be an issue for the home study and was told it's my constitutional right and it won't be an issue.

Feel free to hit me up with any questions and I'll answer as best I can.

Very touching story. That little girl will have a good life thanks to you and your wife.

 

[buckstopshere]

Time to head to the city/county building to finalize this thing. Should be done by 3:10p and then a cookout with family to celebrate tonight. Pics to follow.

After all this time you finally found a family to adopt you!? Good on ya!

seriously tho, congratulations. It's a real fine thing you and your wife are doing.

 

[mac45]

Congrats!

 

[freekforge]

It is so awesome of you to take in a child with known health issues and give it a chance!

My cousin dropped her daughter off at our house for "the night" and never came back she was only nine days old and near death. shes eleven now and according to the state she is ours even though we never officially adopted due to some weird screw up with paper work. We plan on making it official within the year. And todays her birthday.