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Tag: Giving up baby for adoption in Indiana

Adoption Process Adoptive Parent

DOES INDIANA REQUIRE A HOMESTUDY PRIOR TO AN ADOPTIVE PLACEMENT?

Yes, Indiana Code § 31-19-7-1(a) states: “A child may not be placed in a proposed adoptive home without the prior written approval of a licensed child placing agency or the local office approved for that purpose by the department.” Pre-adoptive approval includes a criminal check, as set forth in Indiana Code § 31-9-2-22.5, of all persons, at least eighteen years old, living in the proposed adoptive home. Indiana Code § 31-19-7-1(b). Additionally, the attorney filing the petition for adoption must file the prior written approval with the petition for adoption, as required by Indiana Code § 31-19-7-7-3. Of note, this statute does not require the filing of the home study with the petition for adoption. Typically, we, at Adoption Attorneys Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C. (“Kirsh & Kirsh”), file what we call a “Dear Judge Letter” with the petition for adoption. As the name suggests, the letter begins “Dear Judge.” The adoption agency that completes the home study provides us a letter verifying that the adoption agency has approved the prospective adoptive parents for an adoptive placement and will supervise the placement and submit a report in accordance with Indiana Code §31-19-8.

Isabella Caprario wrote an excellent article about home studies, which addresses many of the commonly asked questions and concerns about home studies.

For more information about adopting a child in Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Michigan, and any state other than New York, please contact us at Kirsh & Kirsh.

Additionally, if you are pregnant and considering giving up your baby for adoption, or more correctly, making an adoption plan for your baby, please contact us. We, at Kirsh & Kirsh — or the “Kirsh Boys,” as the adoption attorneys at Kirsh & Kirsh are sometimes called – Steve, and his brothers, Joel and Rob, and his son, Grant, pride ourselves on answering questions about adoption and explaining the process without pressure or judgment. We cannot make adoption an easy choice, but we can make it less scary by removing some of the unknowns. Ultimately, a birth parent will have to decide if adoption is in their own best interests and the best interests of their child. We, at Kirsh & Kirsh, will not and cannot make that decision for anyone, but we can provide information and answers to questions – that way, you can make a well-informed decision.

Our contact information is below. We will answer your questions and provide you with the information you seek, without cost or obligation on your part. In other words, talking to us is FREE and does NOT mean you ever have to talk or text with us, again. The Kirsh Boys have 90 YEARS OF COMBINED EXPERIENCE practicing adoption law. We can help you in finding an AMAZING, WONDERFUL, adoptive home for your precious baby, whether you live in Westfield or Indianapolis, Bedford or Columbus, Evansville or Huntingburg, or South Bend or Elkhart, Angola or Ft. Wayne, or any Indiana county or city in between, or ANYWHERE in Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, or Michigan.

We have lots of wonderful, carefully screened, loving families, FROM INDIANA AND ALL OVER THE COUNTRY (married, single, Lesbian, and Gay) who cannot wait to welcome a baby into their hearts and homes and are happy to assist with living expenses to the fullest extent allowed by law.

You can call, text, and or email us anytime -call: 317-575-5555, text: 317-721-2030, email: AdoptionSupport@kirsh.com, or Facebook message: https://www.facebook.com/KirshandKirsh/. We answer our office phone 24 hours a day, every single day. We try to respond to emails and text messages within minutes of receipt.

POSITIVE ADOPTION LANGUAGE DISCLAIMER:  Please understand that these blog posts are written in a way to use language that people use when searching for help with their adoption plans.  Unfortunately, while all of us understand what positive adoption language means, most expectant moms that come to us at first do not understand what that means. The most common search term on the Internet for expectant moms is “how do I give up my baby for adoption”.  If we do not include those words in our blog posts, and instead put “how do I create an adoption plan for my baby” then our website will not show up in most expectant moms’ search results in Google.

Birthmother

HOW DO I KNOW ADOPTIVE PARENTS REPRESENTED BY ADOPTION ATTORNEYS KIRSH & KIRSH, P.C. (“KIRSH & KIRSH”) WILL BE A GOOD FAMILY?

We, at Adoption Attorneys Kirsh & Kirsh, understand that every woman facing an untimely unplanned pregnancy, who thinks about putting up her baby for adoption or, more correctly, making an adoption plan for the baby, wonders the same thing. In fact, if a birth mother is not certain that her newborn will have a happy, loving, and safe home, she will not proceed with an adoption. This is true whether she works with adoption professionals like Kirsh & Kirsh, a national adoption agency, or a local adoption agency. Even before Indiana Adoption Law made a pre-placement Homestudy and evaluation of prospective adoptive parents a prerequisite to adopting, Kirsh & Kirsh required prospective adoptive parents to undergo evaluation, assessment, and investigation before Kirsh & Kirsh would help them adopt a child. One of the attorneys at Kirsh & Kirsh, usually Steve Kirsh, who has 40 years of experience handling adoptions in Indiana, meets with new, prospective adoptive parents, and among other things decides if Kirsh & Kirsh will assist them in adopting a child. If the family chooses to hire Kirsh & Kirsh to help them adopt, we, at Kirsh & Kirsh, have them contact an independent, adoption agency to do a personal and home evaluation of them as adoptive parents. Additionally, the agency performs child abuse,  criminal, FBI fingerprint, and sexual offender checks of the family. If the agency does not approve the family for adoptive placement, Kirsh & Kirsh will not represent them in adoption proceedings. Lastly, Kirsh & Kirsh offers all birth mothers and expectant mothers the opportunity to meet, in person, the prospective adoptive parents and decide for themselves whether they trust the family with their soon-to-be-born or newborn baby.

Our contact information is below.  We, at Adoption Attorneys Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C., will answer your questions and provide you the information you seek, without cost or obligation on your part. In other words, talking to us costs you nothing nor does it mean you ever have to talk or text with us, again. We can assist you with an Indiana adoption no matter whether you live in Frankfort or Indianapolis, Bloomington or Whitestown, Evansville or Vincennes, or Auburn or Ft. Wayne, or any Indiana county or city in between.

We have lots of wonderful, carefully screened, loving families (married, single, Lesbian, and Gay) who cannot wait to welcome a baby into their hearts and homes and are happy to assist with living expenses to the full extent allowed by law.

You can call, text, and or email us anytime —call: 317-575-5555, text: 317-721-2030, email: AdoptionSupport@kirsh.com, or Facebook message:  https://www.facebook.com/KirshandKirsh/. We answer our office phone 24 hours a day, every single day. We try to respond to emails and text messages within minutes of receipt.

POSITIVE ADOPTION LANGUAGE DISCLAIMER:  Please understand that these blog posts are written in a way to use language that people use when searching for help with their adoption plans.  Unfortunately, while all of us understand what positive adoption language means, most expectant moms that come to us at first do not understand what that means. The most common search term on the Internet for expectant moms is “how do I give up my baby for adoption”.  If we do not include those words in our blog posts, and instead put “how do I create an adoption plan for my baby” then our website will not show up in most expectant mom’s search results in Google.

Birthmother

IF I PUT UP MY BABY FOR ADOPTION, DO I HAVE TO TELL THE FATHER OF THE BABY?

In most cases, the answer is “No.” Expectant mothers and birth mothers have asked us, at Adoption Attorneys Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C. (“Kirsh & Kirsh”), this question from one end of Indiana to the other — from New Albany, Sellersburg, Clarksville to Gary, Hammond, Valparaiso; from Vincennes, Jasper, Huntingburg, and Evansville to Auburn, Angola, Huntington, Ft. Wayne; and from Indianapolis, Muncie, New Castle, Seymour, and Richmond to Terre Haute, Sullivan, Greenfield, Danville. For those birth mothers in Indiana, the Indiana Adoption laws – statutes and cases  — allow a woman not to identify the father of baby unless the father of the baby has formally established paternity by means of a paternity affidavit or a legal proceeding called a paternity action or she is married to the father of the baby. In our 35+ years of experience handling adoptions throughout Indiana, we rarely see “legal” fathers, those men who have established legal paternity of the child or who are married to the mother of the baby. Most of the men involved in newborn adoptions in Indiana are unwed fathers – in other words, not married to the expectant mother of the baby.

Under Indiana law, the mother of the child does not have to involve or even identify the father of the baby. If she does not, the father of the baby must register with the Putative Father Registry in Indiana prior to filing a petition for adoption or 30 days from birth, whichever occurs first, in order to receive notice of the adoption. Neither the birth mother, the adoption agency, nor the attorney for the adoptive parents must inform the father of the baby of an adoption, the birth of the baby, or even the pregnancy.

We, at Kirsh & Kirsh, have assisted numerous pregnant women, in Indiana and around the country, to find loving, happy, wonderful homes for their babies. We give expectant mothers and birth mothers as much or as little involvement in the family selection process as they would like.

We have lots of wonderful, carefully screened, loving families (married, single, Lesbian, and Gay) who cannot wait to welcome a baby into their hearts and homes and happy to assist with living expenses to the full extent allowed by law.

You can call, text, and or email us anytime —call: 317-575-5555, text: 317-721-2030, email: AdoptionSupport@kirsh.com, or a Facebook message:  https://www.facebook.com/KirshandKirsh/. We answer our office phone 24 hours a day, every single day. We try to respond to emails and text messages within minutes of receipt.