Blog: Adoption

7/2/13

Family law situations and child custody can be a complicated matter, and doing what is in the best interest of a child may not be as easy as it sounds. In one particular child custody and The case involves a girl who was given up for adoption. Her biological referred to the Indian Child Welfare Act as a means of pursuing custody of the girl, as he currently has custody over the adoptive parents...

2/15/13

Pennsylvania adoption a loving goal for babies left at hospitals

A Pennsylvania newspaper recently tackled a delicate but important issue in our state. There is a law on the books that addresses the care and well being of newborn children. Simply stated, the law permits a parent to leave a newborn at a Pennsylvania hospital without any repercussions. There are no questions that must be answered, and the thrust of the law is to protect a newborn infant from another fate. Those that are left...

10/3/12

Adoption between Pennsylvania and other states can be difficult

Adoption can be a challenging process for parents and children alike under the best of circumstances. Throw in the proverbial wrench of an interstate Take the case of a woman from another state who wanted to adopt an older teen from Pennsylvania. She felt called to adopt a child who was close to aging out of the system because she felt that they would have a greater need for the close ties and assistance...

9/13/12

Tenth anniversary of Pennsylvania same-sex parent adoption

A recent multi-family picnic celebrated the anniversary of a victory granting same-sex couples the right to adopt each other’s children in Pennsylvania. The landmark lawsuit marked a five-year battle that went all the way to the state Supreme Court. By the end of this hard-fought case, same-sex parent Prior to that 2002 legal victory, children of same-sex couples were not always granted the same legal protections of their counterparts who had opposite-sex couples parenting...

8/23/12

Pennsylvania couples face pressure for same-sex parent adoption

Same-sex couples who are used to facing their own set of challenges when it comes to getting married may be surprised to find that some challenges are the same no matter what type of couple is involved. For instance, many parents want to know just when a newly-married couple is going to make them grandparents. For Pennsylvania couples who may have previously considered starting a family impossible, the idea of same-sex parent One newly-married...

7/28/12

Pennsylvania to continue subsidies for adoption of foster kids

Many Pennsylvania foster parents continue to support their foster children beyond the age of 18. They say that many of their foster children simply aren’t ready to be on their own, so they continue to support them because they care about them. However, prior to Pennsylvania’s adoption of the federal 2008 Fostering Connections Act, those foster parents were not receiving subsidies for caring for foster children between the ages of 18 and 21. For many...

4/26/12

Adoption tax credit set to expire at the end of the year

When considering pursuing an adoption, there are many things to look into. Among some of the factors a person might consider may be whether or not to seek an open The adoption tax credit may help many Pennsylvania residents with covering the costs of an adoption. In 2011, the tax credit was refundable up to an amount of $13,360 per child. This means that if a person’s tax bill was less than the tax...

3/27/12

An open infant adoption is the new normal

Residents in Pennsylvania thinking about adopting a child may be interested in the results of a recent survey. As many may know, it was once true that the birth parent and the adoptive parent typically had little or no contact in an infant Conducted by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, the study surveyed 100 adoption agencies and found that in 95 percent of infant adoptions, the birth parent and the adoptive parent had...