Adoption

With the myriad fields of adoption available today, Paul Henry has been acting for people for more than 20 years. The adoptions include relative adoptions; step-parent adoptions; stranger adoptions, adult adoptions and direct placement adoptions, where a birth parent or the birth parents select the adoptive couple or individual. He has also been involved in the unusual situation of an adult being adopted by another adult.

Children who are 12 or older have to be interviewed and must give their consent before they can be adopted and Paul has been asked to interview and explain adoption to those children.

“I love working for people who are going through the process to adopt. There can be some stressful times in the adoption procedure but the end result is that people who so much want to raise their own child, are given that opportunity”

As a result of his knowledge of adoption law and the court process, Paul is periodically consulted by lawyers and organizations with questions about adoption law and process.

“I am very much aware of the anxiety that adoptive parents experience, until they have in their hands the Order from the Court stating that they are the parents for their precious child. It is for that reason that I give the utmost priority to adoptions, and exercise special care to ensure that nothing will go untoward in the adoption process. ”

“My assistant, Karen Strate, who has a social work degree, is particularly caring, when helping adoptive parents.”

The Adoption law in British Columbia is governed by the Adoption Act. A relevant international convention is the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoptions, to which British Columbia is a signatory. It aims to prevent the abduction, sale of, or traffic in children and to ensure that an international adoption is in the child’s best interest.

In British Columbia, all adoptions, other than step-parent, relative and adult adoptions, have to be processed through an adoption agency: that is a non-profit organization that is licensed by the Government of British Columbia or through the Provincial Ministry for Children and Family Development. The adoption agency in Kelowna is the Adoption Centre.

Adoptions usually require the written consent of both of the birth parents, but there are certain situations where the birth father’s consent is not required or the consent of one or both parents can be dispensed with, by order of a court.

Adult adoptions do not require the consent of the person’s parents, but the parents have to be served with the application to adopt and the person or persons adopting have to show that the child lived with them and they supported the child, until the child became self supporting or became an adult.

As well as domestic adoptions, Paul acts for people who are adopting a child from abroad, where the adoption process was not completed in the child’s country of origin. He has been involved in adoptions of children from the Philippines, Indonesia, and India, amongst other countries. Most, but not all adoptions are completed in the child’s country of origin.

“What my assistant, Karen, and I particularly enjoy, is when the adoptive parents bring in their child, who they are adopting into our office. The smiles on all the faces make my job so worthwhile!”

Some relevant books that adoptive parents might read either for themselves or to find out how to talk to the adopted child about being adopted:

Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis Click to purchase from Amazon

I Wished for You – A Story of Adoption by Marianne Richmond; Click to purchase from Amazon

Secret Daughter by Shilps Somaya Gowda Click to purchase from Amazon

Is Adoption for You? The information You Need to Make the Right Choice by Christine Adamec Click to purchase from Amazon

Also see: www.tapestrybooks.com – the website of Tapestry Books, a publisher that specializes in adoption