Adoption:
Michelle can assist you in completing the exciting process of growing your family. Michelle is a vendor attorney with the Department of Human Services. If you are adopting a child who was placed in your care through the foster care system, Michelle can help you through the adoption process.
Here’s an outline of what you can expect this process to look like. Your adoption coordinator or local caseworker will provide you with a Vendor Attorney Packet. When you receive this, please call or email our office with the name of the child you are adopting, the names of the biological parent(s), and the county the court proceeding has taken place in. This allows our firm to run a conflict check to ensure we can assist you; if there is no conflict, we will happily assist your family in the adoption process. You can send the vendor attorney form, signed and dated, to my office via fax, email, or mail. Our office will, quite literally, take care of the rest (see the chart below for more information about how this process works)!
At that point, we wait for the finalization packet from DHS, which contains all the paperwork your local caseworkers have been gathering to prepare for finalization. Once we receive the finalization packet from DHS, we dive right in and get it turned into the court as soon as possible. To facilitate our speedy completion of the adoption, please consider:
1. Do you wish to change the child’s name? If so, please provide the exact spelling of the first, middle, and last name.
2. Do you want the judgment submitted and signed without a ceremony, or would you like for us to work with the court to schedule an adoption ceremony? At this ceremony, most courts allow you to bring cake, balloons, invite the family, hire a photographer, etc. Requesting a ceremony can delay the process 1-2 weeks as we are at the mercy of the court’s docket for scheduling.
Our office values the opportunity to work with the kind, generous individuals who have served their communities as foster and adoptive resources for the state’s most vulnerable children.
Michelle S. Bartov, Attorney at Law, LLC 