Adopting.org Discussion Forums

My darling brother got his under-aged girlfriend pregnant. She's due in about 5 months and I was told that they are looking to give the child up for adoption.

Knowing the family dynamics, my husband and I are the logical choice. We have our own home, I'm a SAHM, and our daughter will about about 18 months old at the time of the baby's birth.

My parents have refused to even think about raising another child and I'm pretty sure her parents won't consider it. They are looking at an aunt to take the baby, but I don't know the stability of the aunt in question.

This is a fairly new situation (we actually just found out about all of this 2 days ago), so we're still quite in limbo. But I'm hoping someone on here would be willing to help us with some answers.

If this turns into an uncontested adoption, these are my questions:

1) What is the cost factor? We live in Ohio and my husband makes excellent money, but we also have significant bills (due to our own child, owning a house, school loans, etc.) and can't really just pull $10,000 our of our rear-ends

2)What is the general time-frame? I know Ohio won't let the parents sign over for 72 hours, but I'd like to know a general idea of when the adoption would be completed.

3)Will home studies be required and at what additional cost?

I KNOW that this has the potential to blow up and severely change the family dynamics. I'm not even sure if we would seriously consider adopting or if they are 100% sure they would give the child up, so any help/thoughts would be great.

Thanks.