Indiana Family Lawyer Blog
Adoption is an excellent form of creating a family for those affected by infertility. This post focuses specifically on foster care adoption. There are more than 110,000 children in the foster care system, but nearly 20,000 of these children will never find their adoptive home according to the US Foster Care System. Rita Soronen, the chief executive of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, states, “Foster care adoption hasn’t always been an easy conversation, but all of us in the child welfare stratosphere have tried to educate the public to change misconceptions about foster care.” This awareness effort seems to be paying off, because according to the 2017 US Adoption Attitudes Survey, nearly 80% of people looking to adopt for the first time would consider a child in foster care, which is 7% more than in 2012. Denise Henderson, a single mom who adopted through the foster care system, says, “My daughter came to live with us as a newborn. It took three long years before the courts freed her for adoption. The weight that lifted off me in that moment was incredible.” This is a similar story for many parents who adopt through the foster system. The adoption process may be lengthy at times as it is conducted through the juvenile court systems, but is very rewarding in the end and makes a huge difference in children’s lives.
There are many organizations working toward making the process easier by placing children in homes that are best suited for them and making the transition easier for them. One organization in Indiana, Children’s Bureau, has helped more than 46,000 children and families since 2014. The Villages, another foster agency, serves more than 3,000 kids a day across Indiana. For many parents the happiness that comes with adoption overcomes the struggles that often accompany the foster care system.
The attorneys of Harden Jackson Law are devoted to servicing clients in all areas of family law, including divorce, custody, child support, property division, paternity, post-divorce modifications, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, simple wills, adoption, surrogacy, and other areas of reproductive law. For more information, please contact us at 317.569.0770 or www.hardenjacksonlaw.com.
Nevada recently passed a new law that significantly improves surrogacy and adoption laws in the state. First, it gender neutralizes all adoption and assisted reproductive technology statutes. The law, effective July 1, 2017, will now refer to an “acknowledgment of paternity” as an “acknowledgment of parentage.” This strips away the old language and allows the law to recognize the variety of family types and structures that exist today. Nevada attorney Kimberly Mae Surratt, who helped get these laws passed, commented, “we gender neutralized every single statute in the State of Nevada and it was done with bipartisan support.” The changes in adoption laws include that petitioners to an adoption don’t have to live in the state of Nevada to adopt in the Nevada, which used to only allow non-residents petitioners to adopt if the child was in custody of an agency which provided child welfare services.
