Adoption Law In Arkansas
Adoption Law In Arkansas
Did you know that in some states an expectant parent can actually waive their right to a longer revocation period Arkansas is one of those states? In today's conversation, we are talking with Justin Heimer. And he is an adoption attorney in the state of Arkansas, who's going to review with us not only the step-by-step process of adopting in Arkansas, but also all of the specifications as it relates to the revocation period to finalization, and actually, how it is really advantageous for even out of state adopters to finalize their adoptions in the state of Arkansas. I am so excited to welcome Justin to the show. Welcome to the show Justin, we're super excited to have you here.
JUSTIN: Oh, thank you, Amanda. It is an honor to be here. I think the work you do is amazing. And I love that I get to play a tiny part of it.
AMANDA; Thank you. That's very sweet. I know you are in my home state of Arkansas. So I'm super excited to be able to talk about adoption law in Arkansas. But I'd love if you'd share a little bit more about your background with our audience.
JUSTIN: Yeah, absolutely. I am here in Arkansas, which is God's country and the most amazing state ever. But too many people are moving here. So don't move here. You do want to adopt out of here. It's a great state to adopt from. I actually moved here about 15 years ago to work for a nonprofit and do some fundraising for a nonprofit here and fell in love with the area. And so I went to law school later went to law school at the University of Indiana. It was the best school in the country to give me a full ride. And I had three little kids and a wife. And so we needed the full ride. So I went there. And when we finished, Arkansas was the place we wanted to be. So we came back here and I started my practice immediately and I only do adoptions. My background is I have a Master's in Counseling, I was actually a marriage and family therapist, and went from that to doing some nonprofit work and stuff and then got into adoption law. And it is the absolute best area of law. It is so much fun. And it is all we do. If you come to me for a divorce. You just have to work it out. I don't know how to do divorces. I don't know how to do lawsuits, but we are really, really good at adoptions. And we do a lot of them every year.
AMANDA: That is awesome. Yes, I am super excited to hear you say that because one of the things that I think is really important is that hopeful adoptive families work with an adoption specific attorney. Because there are different types of attorneys for a reason.
JUSTIN: Absolutely. You don't go to, you know, a podiatrist to have your heart checked. The law is a huge broad area, and nobody can know all of it. And so the reason I only do adoption is because it's complicated enough, and I don't want to learn any other areas. I am licensed both in Arkansas and Missouri. But most of my practice is here in Arkansas.
AMANDA: That's very helpful. Well, I know that what you're going to be sharing with us today is purely for informational purposes. We're not creating any sort of attorney-client relationship or anything like that. Again, I'm not an attorney, which is why I ask attorneys to join us. But we are really appreciative of you just walking us through a basic understanding of the adoption law in Arkansas, because to your point, it is so, so wide and so vast, it's impossible for us to cover everything in this conversation. But I'd love if you would be willing to start with just an overview of adoption law in the state of Arkansas.
Adoption Law in Arkansas
JUSTIN: Yeah, so the first thing I'd say about it is that Arkansas is actually one of the best states in the country to adopt out of in fact, many of my clients come from out of state after doing their own research and realizing, oh, Arkansas is where I want to do an adoption from and there are various reasons for that and I'll get into those but it's funny, we can finalize an adoption in Arkansas so much quicker than almost any state in the United States. For comparison purposes. I said I'm licensed in Arkansas and Missouri and Missouri it takes at least six months to complete an adoption. In Arkansas, we regularly really finalize them in six days. So the child, about a week old, oftentimes the adoption has been finalized. And it's very quick. I'm a member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, which is a group of some of the best adoption attorneys in the country. And I'm honored to be a member of them. But I have friends in the academy who joke that we're the drive thru adoption state, because you come here for the birth, you stay a week or two, and you go home, and it's totally done. And so by doing that, we get to skip some of the more difficult and frankly, more expensive processes, some of the riskier ones, too.
AMANDA: So our second child, our son, is adopted from the state of Arkansas, and our first child, our daughter, was adopted in Florida. And so it was a much different process, revocation was obviously different, but the finalization of the adoption six months in Florida at the time that she was born, and then to your point six days here in Arkansas, so having lived both ends of that spectrum, it is an interesting dynamic that exists within adoption law in our country, for sure.
JUSTIN: Yeah, it's, you know, it's a funny thing, because a lot of states have these long drawn out processes. And part of it is to honor that birth mother or, you know, her right, and I'm a big fan of the entire adoption, triad and honoring birth moms rights. But I have found that most birth moms actually feel a level of relief after that five days runs out. Sadly, our culture still puts a lot of shame oftentimes on women who are placing or they put shame on themselves. And once the decision cannot be reversed, there is a muscle that relaxes in them that they didn't even know was tightened. And so I love Arkansas’ system. I think it's beautiful. And we're really honored to get to make a lot of families that way here.
AMANDA: That is great. So we talked a little bit, just as it relates to the finalization process, do you mind to talk us through maybe, when I say the adoption law, it's so vague and hard to describe maybe if we used kind of an example of kind of start to finish how the process works. Would that maybe help our audience follow along?
The Steps To Adoption In Arkansas
JUSTIN: Yeah, absolutely. So whether you come to a firm like ours already matched, maybe you did a self match, or you found out that your neighbor, sister's cousin is pregnant, and had one of those situations where it all came together. Or you come through an agency who then kind of refers you to us. What we do is our process is we represent the adoptive parents. Now, our firm is different from most law firms out there. And it's kind of an interesting backstory behind it. But like I said, I have a master's in marriage and family therapy, I really believe in honoring systems and honoring the process and being trauma informed when you go through a process like this, because there can be a lot of trauma involved in it. And so I was honored last year to be appointed by the governor to sit on the Child Welfare Agency Review Board. And one of the things we've recognized is in the last few years, Arkansas has lost some of its biggest adoption agencies because Bethany Christian Services was a big one here, and they closed essentially nationally to infant adoptions. The Catholic Diocese of Little Rock shut down their program, some of the others did. And so our firm really works a little bit more like an agency in that we have two folks on our staff whose whole job is just to work with expectant moms, one of them placed a baby for adoption herself when she was younger, she's a birth mom. Both of them are now adoptive moms, but their whole job is just to offer that care to them. And then we also have people on our team whose whole job is to care for the client side of things. And then it's my job to make sure it all goes legal and gets done. But having said all that, what I would say is that when you come into an adoption attorney in Arkansas, when you've already generally been matched and you have a situation, that attorneys job is really going to be to help you go through this process, and help you legally adopt this child without accidentally getting into trouble and without accidentally getting your expectant parents into trouble. Everybody has good intentions. Everybody wants to do the right thing. But there are some really specific laws where people can unintentionally commit felonies and so our job is to help prevent that and so, for example, in Arkansas, you are allowed to reimburse pregnancy related expenses, but giving money that is not pregnancy related, or that is to induce a woman to place a child for adoption, that's a felony for both the person who's giving the money and for her receiving it. And so our job is really to help through that. Before we finalize an adoption, we always get an attorney to represent the expectant parents or birth parents if they've had the children so that they have their own representation, someone who's there to make sure they know what's going on. And we get through the process. The benefits of Arkansas, though, is that, because we can finalize in six to 10 days, generally, we can skip ICPC. And when you travel across state lines, to adopt generally you have to go through ICPC, the interstate compact for the placement of children, which is the law that allows you to take someone else's child across state lines, and if we can skip that process, we can generally save a lot of time and a lot of money. Because that process is actually far more difficult for me to get through than just getting through the adoption here in Arkansas.
AMANDA: Yeah, not having to go through ICPC is a big money saver for hopeful adoptive families, because you're just traveling that much less time, right. And when you're away from home, all of the expenses add up, and you already have other expenses that are adoption related. So now having that expense, I know for us and our oldest, unfortunately, we were in Florida for three weeks waiting to clear ICPC. At the time, the person that was the approvals, we ended up with vacations on both ends of the state. It caught us for three weeks. I mean, listen, we were in Florida for three weeks, but that was honestly expensive.
JUSTIN: Sure and it's with a newborn, it's so tough. You're living out of a hotel with a newborn. And all you want to do is get home, I don't care how much you love the beach, you just want to take your baby and go home and relax. I totally agree with that. There's also just a wild amount of relief when that adoption is finalized. And so to be able to do that right away, you know that six or seven days after birth is such a nice thing and gives those adoptive parents, again, so much peace as they travel home. And then finally, when you do ICPC, you often have to have an attorney in your sending state. So you probably have one in Florida and one in your home state. And so that just adds a lot of cost there. And if we can skip processes, cut out an extra attorney that isn't necessary in Arkansas, and get you home and finish faster. Most people are pretty happy with that solution.
AMANDA: Yeah, for sure. So having lived through the process in the state of Arkansas, I'm going to share my recollection of that. And knowing that, you know, it has been a few years. So things change all the time. So for us, it started with a home study, right? So we had to be home study approved, and then we had to match with an expectant parent. And at that point, once we were matched, then depending upon where that parent was to your point, then that's when the attorneys became involved. So she needed an attorney in her state, we needed an attorney in our state. And then if we were finalizing the adoption in the state where, you know, expectant Mama was and we had to have an attorney there. So it was that step was all around getting the attorneys present. And then it was moving into really preparing for birth and baby being born and then to your point, once baby's born, that we're getting into the revocation period into finalization. So I know, we've spent a lot of time talking about finalization, are there any differences in the way the process works in our console today versus what I described?
JUSTIN: No, that's actually pretty close. I mean, technically, you don't have to have your home study done to be matched that's agency dependent. But you know, again, if you do a self match–I recently had a family call me and say, hey, my sister had a baby, we want to adopt that baby. And that baby's a day old. And we haven't thought about adoption before. What do we do? Well, we were able to get that family a temporary guardianship that lasts 90 days in Arkansas, 90 days was long enough to get the home study done. And then we were able to finalize and so they took that baby home from the hospital as if they were adopting have been parenting from day one, essentially. And then we were able to finalize it within a couple of months after the study was done.
AMANDA: Yeah, that's a good point that sometimes the process looks slightly different. In that case, so there is no ICPC because they were all in the same state. And then we understand how the finalization was impacted because they had to wait for their home study. The one thing we didn't talk about in kind of in general yet was the revocation period. Could you speak a little bit specifically about the revocation period in the state of Arkansas?
The Adoption Revocation Period in Arkansas
JUSTIN: Yeah. So if you start Googling, you're going to believe that it's a 10 day revocation period in Arkansas. And the reason for that is that the law says that the birth parents, from the moment that the baby's born, or the moment that the consent is signed, whichever is later, starts a 10 day window in which they can change their mind. And the 10 days is the hardest thing in the world to explain, because it's not 10 calendar days, and it's not 10 business days, it's 10 calendar days, but can’t end on a weekend or holiday. And so I always just sort of tell people, okay, your baby was born today, let me tell you what day that revocation period ends. Now, because the law says 10 days everybody thinks that's what it is. But then the law actually says it can be waived down to five days. Most people prefer a five day consent. I have some expectant moms who've said to me no, no, I want 10 days, I want to give myself the full freedom. That's fairly rare. Like I said, most expectant moms feel a sense of relief when that time runs out. And in my experience, sadness, I mean, it's a major thing. But, also a sense of relief and a sense of finality to it that gives them some peace. And so it can be waived down to five days. And so five days is the norm. It requires that the biological mother always needs to sign the biological father needs to sign if he's married to the biological mother, or has supported her. There are some other crazy examples that can be but with an infant it really comes down to those two scenarios. So in Arkansas, like many states, we have a putative father's registry. And what that means this is, if I could just nerd out on the law for a second. Here's the thing, a child is sort of considered your property. And the government can't take your life, liberty or property without due process of law that's in the Constitution. It's called the due process clause. We've probably heard about that in junior high sometime. Yeah. Well, someone realized, it's really hard to terminate, to have a process to terminate a birth dad's rights when we don't know who the guy is, because we're taking away this guy's rights to his child, or we're severing those rights, but we don't know how to contact him. And so some genius, I just love this idea, came up with a putative father's registry. And what it means is there is literally a list here in Arkansas, it's in Little Rock, it's at the Capitol, where a man can call in and say, hey, I was intimate with this woman on this day, and this woman on this day, and this one over here on this date, and if any of them have a baby and place it for adoption, you have to let me know, the truth is very few people know that list exists. And very, very few people call and put their names on that list. But because that list exists, we can just check that list. And by checking it, we can see that if nobody signed up and said that they were intimate with this particular birth mom, that we have done the due process to terminate their rights. And so it makes it much simpler than many states where you have to publish in the newspaper, which, personally I just find to be, again, something that is so shame inducing for that woman who's placing to have her name published in the paper, with an unknown father, you know, if someone's ever googling her, they may, you know, she's applying for a job, and she's being Googled. And all of a sudden, they find out that she placed a baby because it was published in some newspaper years ago.
AMANDA: So yeah, well, thank you, that is very helpful to understand how the revocation period really works, and then how the putative father registry works, because, again, it does vary state by state. And that is something that we spend a lot of time talking about the expectant mom that he obviously has rights to, but it's about understanding, one, if he's identifiable, does she know who he is? And is she sharing that information with you and then making sure that you're legally compliant? Because just as you don't want to be caught in a situation where you've provided financial assistance, it's going to end up in putting your adoption opportunity in jeopardy or committing a felony, you know, albeit from a very, you know, nice intention. I mean very well meaning intention. You also don't want to put your opportunity at risk because you didn't follow the due diligence there in order to terminate his rights and provide the right notification.
JUSTIN: Again, this is why you want an attorney who understands adoption law because adoption law in Arkansas falls in the probate court. It's in a totally different court system, even than, divorce and so much of family law. And so you want someone who does this a lot. Arkansas adoption code has specifically said that any failure, even a minor one to follow all the rules explicitly can void your adoption. And so it's really, really important that you follow every single rule really, really closely. In fact, a lot of my clients are actually other attorneys who just haven't done a lot of adoptions and say, I don't want to try and learn this. I don't want to try and get this right, please just do this right for me.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah, it's really important. I had someone in my community the other day, say, I found this form online. Can I use this to finalize my adoption? I was like no. Absolutely not! I was like let me share all the horror stories that attorneys have shared with me, do not do that. You spoke a little bit earlier around how folks can get matched. What are the different types of methods of matching that are allowed in the state of Arkansas?
Can you self-match your adoption in Arkansas?
JUSTIN: So, by Arkansas statute, a child can be placed for adoption by a licensed agency, a doctor or an attorney, or by the biological parents of the child. So that's who can do a placement, but to go even broader to who can do a match. Facilitators are allowed in Arkansas, because they're not specifically forbidden in Arkansas. And so there are many adoption facilitators who work in Arkansas, and some of them do a really great job, that tends to be a little bit more expensive of an adoption. And their job is really to try and put together a match. And then they often sort of just hand everything off to a local attorney to finalize it. But some of them do a really good job helping people find somebody, again, gosh it can add up to do that. But you can also self match in Arkansas, you can advertise in Arkansas for a match. Arkansas is a pretty open state to finding situations. I regularly tell folks to cast a wide net. And so, you know, that means let everybody you know, know that you're looking to adopt and who knows, she may find that someone you know, knows of an expectant mom just looking to place. I said that to a woman who visited me one time and she called me back a couple of weeks later and said, This is not working for me. I have just been going up to all the pregnant women I see and saying do you plan to keep that child? No, no, no, no, no. What I have seen work better is I had another woman who sat in my office to who I suggested that she cast a wide net. And her phrase that she started using with friends and people was they'd say what's new with you? And she said, you know, my husband and I have decided to adopt and we're just looking for the right situation to work with. And she called me a couple months later. And she said, I've been saying that phrase so much. It just runs out of my mouth. That sounds like a canned speech. But I was getting my hair cut by the same woman who cuts my hair all the time and has been cutting it for 10 years. And I said it and she just stopped cutting my hair and dropped her hands to her sides and started crying. She said my 13 year old granddaughter is pregnant. And she’s decided she wants to place the baby for adoption and we support it. I got to finalize that adoption, it was so sweet. Because she just was willing to be brave and let people know that and it’s so invulnerable to be willing to share that.
AMANDA: That is amazing. That just warms my heart and gives me goosebumps, I love it. I share with my community all the time that you just never know where that opportunity is going to come from. And that it's about being prepared to share that you would like to adopt and having something that is fit for purpose for that situation. I had a client put up a flyer at a laundromat, and, someone scanned the QR code, went to her website, watched her video and then called her the next day and said, I'd like to meet you and talk about placing my child with you. You just you never know. had another client who gave a business card to her OBGYN because they knew that they were trying to adopt, and he passed that business card along to someone who came into his office and was considering terminating the pregnancy, and he said, Are you open to adoption? If so, are you open to learning more about these people? And they placed with them? And so you just never know, casting a wide net. I'm a firm believer in that.
JUSTIN: I think it’s great. I watched one of your videos recently, where you talked about how to make a video. And I thought that was so good. You know, a lot of the women we place with, even here in Arkansas aren't native English speakers. And they don't always feel comfortable with the books that they're reading or trying to read a lot of the language, they tend to enjoy the pictures more. And sometimes it's not even as much about what is communicated as it is about how that couple leans into each other when they laugh and how she touches his arm and how they seem to keep smiling at each other. And their eyes light up when they see each other and things like that can be so so powerful. And so just having the right tools, I think is so important in those situations.
AMANDA: I completely agree. Well, this has been absolutely fantastic. I'd love if you would spend just a few minutes giving us any final thoughts as relates to adoption law in Arkansas, or just adoption in general, that you would hope that hopeful adoptive families would really remember as they approach their journey.
JUSTIN: So I have a couple tips that I tend to give people. One is hold it with an open hand. And I know that’s so hard for people to hear, because they go no, no, this is my life savings. And this is my hope. But it's funny. I've watched many, many women look through profile books and choose families. And in my experience, they almost always choose a family, either because of a feeling they get not because of what's communicated, or because of something that is just so arbitrary. I had a woman one time choose a family. And I said, tell me why you chose them. And she flipped to one picture in the book. And she said, and it was a picture of the family standing at a big table with a mounted bass on the wall behind them. And she said they must be fishermen. My dad was a fisherman, I want them to adopt this child. So I called the family and I told them and they were so excited. And then I told them, hey, you know, she chose you because of that one picture. And there was silence on the other end of the phone. And then the husband said, I am so sorry, we were at a restaurant. That's not our fish, I don't fish. But Justin, I will go buy a fishing pole tonight. I'm learning to fish, I will teach this child to fish. And I called and told the expectant mom that story just to make sure, you know, she had a right to know. And she just loved it. And she said, Well, if he's willing to learn to fish for my child, that's even better. Women, oftentimes, and men, when they're involved in the situation, will oftentimes choose a family for really arbitrary reasons, the best thing you can do is just put yourself out there and let people know who you are. I would also say that in my experience, don't try and show that Instagram perfect lifestyle. It is off putting what they want to see is the silly Halloween costumes. And the picture on the beach with the heart in the sand is not nearly as cool as the one where you smash that cake into his face at the wedding day. So they want to see your personality. In my experience, I think a lot of women have a hard time processing in that moment of choosing families that this is who's going to raise my child. Instead, they separate from that a little bit and go, I get to make somebody happier than they've ever been in their life today, who in this pile do I want to make? And so present yourself in a way that allows her to see the real you flaws and all, flaws are endearing. So that's my biggest piece of advice.
AMANDA: Oh, that is so awesome. And I really appreciate you, one taking the time to educate us, but two helping us really see the perspective of the entire triad and really understanding there are different perspectives that we need to think about and encouraging hopeful adoptive families to take that breath and to be real and to share who they really are. Because that is ultimately what makes that emotional connection with an expectant parent. And that's really what makes the whole situation just feel that much more comfortable for everyone. So that's amazing.
JUSTIN: You know adoptions are a really vulnerable process. It's vulnerable for that expectant mom, who you know, in Arkansas open adoptions are unenforceable. So if adoptive parents choose to cut off a relationship after the adoption has gone through, there is nothing that the expectant or birth mom can do to change that. That's really scary for her, in the same way that it's really scary for those adoptive parents, well, what if she changes her mind, you know, four days after birth or three days after birth. And it's vulnerable and leaning into the vulnerable, is what allows us to be to be seen and soothed and even safe in that situation. So I vote vulnerability.
AMANDA: Yes, for sure. I love it. Where can our audience go to learn more about you and to get connected with you if they should have the opportunity to adopt from the state of Arkansas?
JUSTIN: Our website is Heimer Law, heimerlaw.com. We are licensed in Arkansas and Missouri, and we do step parent adoptions, we do some adoption matching, but we are almost always full, we take on a very limited number of families because we will not sell false hope. We only take on as many as we think we can do a good job with but we do everything that has to do with adoption. We do it. We do adult adoptions, we do recognition of foreign adoptions. We do guardianships for the purpose of adoption. So reach out to us at Heimer Law anytime. My email is justin@heimerlaw.com. That's because my name is Justin Heimer. And so I thought it'd be simple. It made it easy for me to remember. And I am always happy to answer questions, help people and get them on the right track, you know, in the end, everybody's just trying to help people make families and do it well. And when people aren't doing it, well, it's oftentimes just because they're not educated on how to do it well, which is why I'm so excited about what you're doing here. Because people just need to know how to do this ethically and honorably. And then they generally want to.
AMANDA: Yeah, they do. I always believe that folks, for the most part, have positive intent, right. And so we can approach it from that perspective and be open and honest, it will be a much simpler process for all involved. So I'll make sure and link to you in the show notes. So folks, if you're listening or watching, you'll be able to connect easily with Justin there. But Justin, thank you again so much for your time and for sharing your wisdom with our audience today. We appreciate you.
JUSTIN: Oh, thank you, Amanda.
AMANDA: All right, my friend. There you have it. an in depth overview of the adoption law in the state of Arkansas and the step by step process to adopt in Arkansas I trust that you found this content incredibly valuable. And if you need more assistance as it relates to the step by step process for any different type of matching, head on over to my adoption coach.com and check out the private adoption program where I teach you how to adopt, no matter which method of matching you're using. Remember, friend, you are worthy of support, and I'm here with you every step of the way.
Disclaimer: The information contained herein is not to be considered legal advice. We are not attorneys. Should you wish to hire the attorney mentioned in this post, please contact them directly.
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