Hey everyone.... hope everyone is doing great!
So I know some of you may or may not have known that Jonathan asked me before we were even engaged, about once we were married, how would I feel if he adopted Nick and gave him his last name.
So we've been married a little over 4 mo. now, and I finally got around to sitting at the DMV all day to legally change my name a couple Friday's ago, Oct. 3rd.
So anyway, I had gotten a name and phone number for an adoption attorney right before Gustav, and things got a little crazy for a bit there, so I never did call her back to set up an appointment. Since I was already taking a personal day that Friday for my legal stuff, and Jonathan was off, I decided to see if she could meet with us.
So at the end of a busy and aggravating day, we went to see her. She is very nice and professional and expressed how much she loves to do intra family adoptions, especially with stories like ours, that have a bad beginning, but a happy ending. Unfortunately, the idiot still legally has parental rights and must be contacted and served once the Petition for Intra Family Adoption and Name Change is filed with the court. If they can't locate him to serve him, then a curator will have to be hired to try and locate him and/or post an ad in the paper, which of course, is an extra cost to us. Then if they find him, he will have to sign, terminating parental rights. Background checks on Jonathan and myself will also be done.... of course with no worries. I'm just so mad that we even have to contact him! You'd think they would come up with some law or something in court when a parent has been absent 6 yrs! Especially being the fact that he's never even met him!! argh! Makes me so mad!
Anyway, if they can't find him or get any response, then we can go to the hearing and our attorney can make that note to the judge in which the judge can go ahead and sign off on it. That would be the best case scenario.
However I'm just afraid once he's contacted.... who knows what could happen and what he would want to do and I certainly don't want to have to explain to a 5 yr. old who this new man in his life is. That's what freaks me out the most, if he decides he doesn't want to terminate his rights and start visitation or something.
So anyway, that's the jist of it..... her fees are going to be $1,600 (which I don't think is too bad considering the fees I've seen that the attorney I work for gets) and then with the filing costs and cost of a curator would bring the total fees and costs to approximately $2,100. I don't guess that's too bad.... she will require a $700 to start. Jonathan and I wanted to discuss everything and think everything over first. We started thinking how Thanksgiving and Christmas is right, literally, around the corner.... all the costs associated with that..... I'd just feel better to wait until after Christmas to pay her and then she will get started. She said the process would take maybe 3 or 4 months until our hearing.
With that, Nick's name will be legally changed to our last names, and they will change it on his birth certificate, and add Jonathan to the birth certificate and send us the new one. Once we have that, I think the only other thing is change the social security card and then I can give that information to the school so they can have it too.
Well, that is what's going on with that. Hopefully it won't be too long... probably at least 6 mo. before everything's finalized!
I'm really looking forward to the end of it though! lol
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