adoption proceedings
Legal family creation
Adoption proceedings are the legal process through which a person or couple becomes the legal parent of a child who is not biologically theirs.
The term covers court hearings, paperwork, home studies, and other formal steps required to finalize an adoption: The adoption proceedings took nearly two years to complete.
The phrase emphasizes the bureaucratic and judicial aspects rather than the personal experience of becoming a family.
- custodyProtective care or control
- guardianshipLegal care of another
- birth motherParent who delivered child
- birth parentsGenetic mother and father
- orphanChild whose parents died
placement · termination · parental rights · home study · background check · petition · court · finalization · biological parents · caseworker · waiting · child welfare · reunification · consent · hearing · judge · best interests · agency
adoption proceedingsnatural conception
Pregnancy achieved without fertility treatment
adoption proceedingsfoster care
Supervised substitute parenting
foster placement · kinship care · temporary custody · respite care
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