An adoption can take a long time to finalize. For example, it can take a year to adopt a healthy infant—sometimes more if you want to adopt one from a specific ethnicity. Anything can happen during that time including a breakdown of the adoptive parents' marriage. How a divorce affects the outcome of a pending adoption depends a lot on the type of adoption the parents are involved in. Here's what you can expect to happen if you get divorced while adopting a child.
Consensual Adoption
A consensual adoption occurs when the child's biological parents willingly give up their parental rights so another person or couple can become the child's legal parents. This can happen with any aged child, but is seen most often with babies and toddlers.
Until the biological parents' rights are terminated, however, they have complete control over what happens to the child. The risk in this situation is they will stop the adoption process after hearing about your impending divorce, especially if one of the factors in their decision to let you adopt their child was you were married.
If you and your spouse still want the child, you'll likely have to convince the biological parent that the divorce will have minimal impact on the care and support the child will receive. Alternatively, you can discuss adopting the child as a single person if your ex-spouse doesn't want to continue the adoption and you do.
Adoption of Foster Children
Unlike a consensual adoption, the parents of children in the foster care system who are available for adoption will typically have had their parental rights severed by the state. So in this situation, it's not the biological parents you have to worry about but the court system.
The court's primary concern is what's in the best interests of the child. If the court feels your divorce will have too much of a negative impact on the child, it will deny the adoption application. For instance, if there is a lot of acrimony evident between you and your ex, the court may feel this could be harmful to a child who may already be struggling with the loss of his or her biological parents. Another thing that could impact the court's decision on whether to let the adoption continue is if the custodial parent will have the financial foundation required to provide for the child.
The court will consider all factors and options when making a decision. The judge may let the adoption go through, or even let one parent adopt the child, if the conditions are right.
International Adoption
International adoptions are tricky because each country has its own requirements that potential parents must adhere to. Some countries allow single people to adopt children, but some don't. For instance, to adopt a child from Ethiopia, you must be married a minimum of 2 years and you can't have been divorced more than two times. It is likely the agency will terminate the adoption if you start divorce proceedings in the middle of the process because you'll end up as a single person.
It's best to talk to the adoption agency about your divorce to determine how it will affect your eligibility. They may make an exception depending on a number of factors including how far along you are in the process and whether the child will still be well-cared for.
In all of these situations, it's critical that you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse decide if continuing with the adoption is a good idea. Getting a divorce can be challenging enough, but throwing a child into the mix can complicate things even further. For example, you'll have to work out child custody and support issues in addition to separating the marital property.
If you're contemplating divorce and you're in the process of adopting a child, it's a good idea to talk to a local divorce attorney about how the adoption will affect your divorce case so you can make the best decision for you and your family. Try visiting a site like http://www.madisonlf.com to find a divorce attorney.
