You take care of other people’s children when they cannot care for them.  You protect child after child in transition.  Then, one day, you find a child just a bit more special than the rest.  This child has bonded with you in a way the others did not.  You realize that you wish to care for this child for life.

Foster Parent Adoptions are a very special kind of adoption.  Because of the preference under the law of placement of children with their birth parents, this process can sometimes be sad for the foster parent who starts this path only to have a parent re-appear right before the end.  You should go into this process with your eyes wide open.  Foster Parent Adoptions can and do fall through because of a returning parent, sometimes even when that parent has never been involved.  Georgia law favors the birth parents, and there is also a family first presumption for placement if a grandparent, aunt, or uncle is available.  However, in a case where you have taken care of a child and bonded with the child, you sometimes know that you have to take on that risk and fight.

We are willing to fight with you.  We know that sometimes a child will find for the first time that parental bond with a foster parent.  The child may have been passed among family, ignored, or even mistreated, but along the way, he or she feels love and truly bonds with you.  Both the child and that special bond are worth fighting to preserve.

We are proud to work with foster parents in their fight to provide a child with a loving home.  Our retaining fee for a contested step-parent adoption is $5,000.00, while adoptions with both parents' consent will only require a $2,500.00 retaining fee.  We bill against that fee at $250.00 to $395.00 per hour, depending on the experience of the attorney.  (Experts, court fees, and costs are not included in the attorney’s fee.  More details would be explained in a legal services agreement.)

If you wish to go over the facts of your case and explore your options, call 770-863-8355 to schedule a free consultation with one of our adoption attorneys.