Help Us Hire an Adoption Lawyer

So here's the scoop:

We've been working towards adopting two older kiddos from foster care for over a year now. There's been good times and there's been hard times. The case is messy, and I can't get too detailed about it, unfortunately. Long story short, these kids have been waiting for their forever family for over five years now. That's unheard of and unacceptable. The adoption should have been finalized about 6 months ago and we should be a legal family by now. 

Right now we're in some of the darkest times we've ever experienced. One of the kiddos was removed due to no fault of our own and now we are in a place where we will be required to testify in front of the courts in October. We are so desperate to give our other kiddo a forever home, but amidst personal attacks from individuals with legal power on this case, we are starting to really worry. Besides that, we want to fight for our other kiddo's best interests as well. We have an idea of what types of parents that kiddo would really thrive with, and we want the ability to fight for that future for that kiddo. 

Foster/ adoptive parents are the most under-represented parties in any foster-adopt cases. Bio parents get court appointed legal counsel. Caseworkers have access to county attorneys. The kids get their very own lawyer called a Guardian ad Litem or a GAL for short. Foster parents get nothing. If they want legal representation in court, they have to pay out of pocket for it.

We've spoken with an adoption lawyer who specializes in the type of case we are dealing with. Here's the problem, his retainer fee is $3000 and we just. don't. have. it. 

As a note, we can't give details on the case. Know that we only want to give these kiddos a place to call home where they can return to when they are in college, looking for their first job, getting married, having kids, etc. Kids who age out of the system don't have that luxury. We became foster parents to help put a stop to that tragedy. 

Will you help us secure a forever home for our kiddo and a good future for the other by helping us pay for a lawyer? Every bit will help and we really appreciate your support and concern.

Most importantly, we need to secure a lawyer before October 27th, but sooner than that would be better. If you feel led to help us financially, but have some questions, please feel free to reach out to us with a private message, phone call, text, email, etc. We are happy to answer non-specific but related questions.