In Texas, the court’s primary concern is the best interests of the child. An experienced attorney familiar with the state’s adoption procedures can help ease the adoption process.
Whether a child is placed in a new home privately or an adoption agency, a petition for adoption must be filed. The child is placed in the custody of the new parents for a period of six months to one year before the adoption becomes final. This allows home study – the monitoring of the child’s welfare in the new home through a court’s authorized agency visits to the home. At the end of the period, a court hearing reviews the parents’ qualifications and, if satisfactory, grants a permanent decree of adoption. In this manner, the child gains all the rights of a natural child of the adoptive parents and a new birth certificate is issued, showing the adoptive parents as the child’s legal parents.
