Adult Adoption – A Unique Mechanism for Achieving Permanence
November 21, 2020 is National Adoption Day, a day where we recognize and celebrate the children, youth, and families impacted by adoption, especially for children and youth who are adopted from the child welfare system. In honor of National Adoption Day, we want to...
Adult Adoption: A Mother’s Experience
"When people first learned I was in the process of adopting my daughter, the responses were pretty typical: first, they wondered if she was from America, and next they’d ask her age. And that’s when things got interesting. “Oh, she’s 19,” I’d answer. Typically, people...
What Happens After the Adoption is Final? What About the Birth Certificate?
The legal adoption process is a means to an end, expanding a family in a specific capacity and formalizing a parent/child relationship. The legal process is initiated with the intent of achieving a final decree of adoption. We celebrate those days with love and joy...
“Smarter, Stronger, and Kinder”
Stephenson & Fleming, LLP was established to serve all children and families. Today, we intentionally recommit ourselves to that mission and pledge our specific ongoing commitment to function as advocates for families we serve with Black children and/or Black...
New Issue of Fostering Perspectives: Ensuring Foster Care Is a Support for Families
Foster care should be a support for families, not a substitute for parents. Shared parenting can help us make this vision of foster care a reality. In shared parenting, resource parents cultivate positive, supportive relationships with birth parents, giving them more...
Activities for Foster, Adoptive, Kinship, and Biological Families During Covid-19
During this unprecedented time of social distancing and quarantine due to Covid-19, we have the amazing ability to use technology to connect, learn, and be entertained. Many families are also seeking opportunities to engage their children in new online activities and...