A “direct placement” adoption is also a private adoption, but it involves cases where the birth mother places the child directly with you, the adopting parent. This is in contrast to an agency adoption where the agency places the child with you on the birth mother’s behalf (and provides many other services you can learn about on the agency adoption page). A direct placement adoption is a separate legal process that involves more legal paperwork, but many birth parents prefer this route because with a direct placement, they are making the placement, not the agency.

In a “direct placement” adoption, we represent the adoptive parents by working closely with the birth parent’s attorney to complete the legal side of the adoption process.

This involves preparing a “motion for a preadoptive custody order,” which gives you legal custody of the child—from the birth mother—until the adoption is final. You can then take the child to medical appointments and take discharge of the child at the hospital. In a direct placement adoption, the adoptive parents must pay for the birth parent’s attorney. We work with the birth parent’s attorney to obtain the supporting documentation to support the request for the preadoptive custody order. Typically, we get a preadoptive custody order for you within a day or two of requesting it from the court.

As with agency adoptions, we prepare your petition for adoption and your final adoption order, as well as ensure that the Minnesota Fathers Adoption Registry is searched to identify any potential fathers who may have registered to receive notice of an adoption. In general, once the registry is searched and no potential fathers have registered within 30 days of the child’s birth, the father’s rights are terminated.

We then file all the required adoption files and records with the court through electronic filing. We do this as promptly as possible. Most of our adoption cases are final within 90 days of the filing of the adoption petition!