Adoption Decree Sample

Parties who can reverse an adoption usually include the birth parents, adoptive parents and the child being adopted. In order for an adoption to be reversed, a petition must usually be filed by one of these parties and the court must be convinced of a compelling reason to reverse or annul the adoption.

Decree of Adoption is the document that a judge signs to finalize an adoption. It formally creates the parent-child relationship between the adoptive parents and the adopted child, as though the child were born as the biological child of its new parents.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge signs the decree of adoption, and any other orders related to the adoption, such as an order approving a payment of living expenses to the birth mother, or terminating an alleged father's parental rights.

You may be able to obtain a copy of the adoption record that is maintained by the superior court by filing a petition, under California Family Code 9200, in the clerk's office of the county superior court where the adoption was finalized.

In most adoptions, the final adoption hearing occurs around six months after placement, although some hearings can happen as little as three months or up to a year after placement.

After your adoption finalization is complete, your adoption attorney will help you apply for a new birth certificate and social security card. At this point, your legal adoption process will be complete but your lifelong adoption journey is just beginning.

Therefore, the only way a birth parent could reclaim custody of an adopted child is by proving to a court that the decision to sign the relinquishment document was done under fraud or duress. In most cases a court will automatically deny custody to a birth parent when their parental rights have been terminated.

A parent can voluntarily place a child into foster care or voluntarily surrender his/her parental rights so that the child can be adopted by another person, but there is no such thing as un-adopting a child.