Well the Holidays are over and Edgar still is not legally adopted. There have been some things that Juan and I have been trying to gather and put all the pieces together so that we can make this process as easy and cheap as possible.
The first thing that we did is Juan and I got a letter form the mother stating that Juan and I are sole guardians of Edgar. This guardianship paper is just a notarized piece of paper as it is nothing through the courts.
The next step that we did is that Juan and I hired a lawyer and decided that we would need help from a lawyer to complete this process. After signing with the lawyer and then telling them more and more about the case the lawyer then wanted to talk to our social worker seeing that we had gone through most of the process already though the county. once all parties spoke to each other the social worker, Juan, and myself decided that this was something that could be completed on our own and that we would no longer need the assistance of a lawyer to represent us. There are several reason why this is the case. Some of the reasons is that now dont quote me on this but it is either the State of California or it maybe a federal law ( I am not to sure) but with Edgar being a relative of Juan the process should be a little easier and since the father is unknown we would not have to try to track down him or his whereabouts as only one parent in this case would have to consent to the adoption. This right there saves us lots of $$$ as we no longer will be required to pay lawyer fees and we should be getting our unused money back.
Another step that Juan and I have discoverd or came about is about the home study and the process with the county other than the courts.
Apparently once the petition is filed for the adoption we are required to take the paper work over to the Health and Human Services where they can begin their process. At this point they are suppose to charge us $4500 but only required to pay half upfront and the rest at the end. The problem that Juan and I were starting to get upset about is that we could not believe that they were going to make us go through all the hoops that we have already gone through and still charge us another $4500.
After pulling some strings and talking to some people Our social work finally agreed to continue on and finish our home study. This is great news as now we are going to be able to save more money. We still are required to pay for some part of the process but it is a significant price difference.
There are still some concerns and hoops that we need to jump through and we are trying to iron them out currently. One thing that comes to mind is the fact that Little Edgar has no insurance and if something would happen to him we might be in a world of hurt. I have since applied for Medi Cal and we are pretty confident that we are going to be able to get this coverage for him within a week or so.
This entire process is still a long way from being over but I am glad to be apart of it and really appreciate the support that all our friends and family are giving during this time.
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