Helping Build Families
Giving a child a loving home and caring family through adoption is a wonderful and rewarding opportunity. However, the Oklahoma adoption process itself can be incredibly stressful.
That is why the Oklahoma City adoption attorneys at Postic & Bates focus on offering caring, compassionate legal advice to successfully complete your adoption while also providing you with comfort and peace of mind to make the experience as painless as possible.
What Adoptions Do We Handle?
There are many different kinds of adoptions, and each type involves different legal requirements and consequences. Our attorneys can assist families with a wide range of cases, including:
Private adoptions
Stepparent adoptions
Adult adoptions
Special needs adoptions
DHS adoptions
International re-adoptions
Foster care adoptions
Kinship adoptions
Whatever your case, we will guide you through every step of the process. In addition to scheduling court hearings, preparing and filing legal pleadings, and coordinating social workers, medical personnel, and other necessary parties, our attorneys can connect you to home study professionals and other adoption resources to assist you.
“There are no unwanted children, just unfound families.”
Do You Need Adoption or Guardianship?
In addition to adoptions, our attorneys advise clients on guardianship matters. While adoptions and guardianships share some similarities, the two processes have very different legal effects.
For example:
In an adoption, the parental rights of the birth parents are terminated. In a guardianship, those parental rights remain intact.
In an adoption, the birth parents’ obligations to pay child support (if any) cease. In a guardianship, child support obligations remain in effect.
Adoptive parents obtain the same legal parental rights over the child as if he or she were their biological child. Guardians are not recognized as the child’s legal parents but merely assume responsibility for the child until he or she turns 18.
Depending on your situation, a guardianship may be more suitable than an adoption — in fact, an adoption may even be doomed to failure. You should therefore ask an attorney which option is best for you.
Is Re-adoption Right For You?
Oklahoma recognizes legal adoption decree issued by foreign governments. However, children adopted from foreign countries often face difficulties in filling out school applications, navigating the legal system, and more.
Re-adoption is a process by which you adopt a child a second time, this time in front of a judge of a U.S. court, to obtain a U.S. birth certificate for the child. While it may not be necessary to re-adopt a child in every situation, there are many benefits, including:
Ensuring your child has no problems re-entering the United States when traveling.
Changing your child’s name in state and on citizenship documents.
Guaranteeing your child’s right to inherit from you in all states.
Making it easier to enroll your child in schools that have strict application processes or that require a domestic final decree of adoption.
Making it easier for your child to obtain a driver’s license.
Securing your child’s legal rights in other states that (unlike Oklahoma) do not recognize foreign adoption decrees.
Changing your child’s date of birth when medical evidence contradicts the date listed on the foreign certificate.
At the very least, re-adoption can offer peace of mind and a chance to recognize your relationship with your child in the presence of family and friends who were not present during the adoption process in a foreign country.
The attorneys at Postic & Bates have been involved with re-adoptions of children from China, Africa, Russia, Korea, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Nepal, and Guatemala.
Get More Adoption Information Today
When you decide to bring a child into your life, it is the unconditional love, support, care, and attention you provide that makes you a parent. But the adoption process is how you secure your legal right to parent and give the child legal rights of his or her own.
Contact one of the experienced Oklahoma City adoption attorneys at Postic & Bates today for a FREE, no-obligation consultation by calling 405-691-5080 or by clicking the button below:
[As with all our online materials and other publications and resources, the contents of this article do not constitute legal advice and are subject to our site-wide disclaimer.]