Adoptions in California

San Diego CA Adoption Lawyers

At any given time there are always children out there who need a home and a parent or parents to provide them with love and support, and adoptions serve the very important purpose of fulfilling this need. Though many married couples choose to adopt a child in order to start a family or add to their existing one, under California state law, any adult is eligible to adopt a child. In fact about 25% of the children that are adopted from foster homes through the California Department of Social Services are adopted by unmarried individuals. The law does stipulate that in addition to reaching the legal age of adulthood, the potential adoptive parent must be at least ten years older than the child that he or she intends to adopt.

Those who are seeking to adopt a child can go though the California Department of Social Services, a licensed private adoption agency, or an attorney who includes adoption law as part of his or her practice. In the past just about all adoptions were considered to be “closed.” A closed adoption exists when the natural parents and adoptive parents do not know one another’s identity and as a result, can’t make contact with one another. This protects the adoptive parents from a potential conflict at some point in the future if the biological parents were to decide that they wanted to play a role in the life of the child, or even regain custody. Most adoptions are still closed, but there are more and more open adoptions taking place, and in these cases the biological parents and adoptive parents have each other’s contact information and are free to interact as they see fit.

Though most adoptive parents do not know the child that they are adopting, adoption between family members is not uncommon. Stepparents will often times adopt a child who has been in their direct care for a significant period of time, and adoptions by other family members may also be sought under certain circumstances. Adoptions are generally a win-win situation for both parents and children as long as you do your research, understand the challenges involved, and tap into all of the resources that are available to assist you.

Anyone who is interested in adoptions should always retain the services of an experienced San Diego CA family lawyer with a background handling adoption cases.