Lawyer Lisa
We have just returned from visiting Lawyer Lisa. Yay! The funny thing, M. managed to freak out the LAWYER with her level of planning about this entire process. High points:- There is a law in WA state that says if the conception is Intercourse Free, the donor automatically gives up his rights. Until we talked to Lawyer Lisa we thought the only way to completely protect our rights prior to a second parent adoption was to inseminiate in a doctor's office. Not so.
- DtD's BF will be signing the contract as well. This is good from our standpoint because it involves him in the process.
- We have officially opted out of getting individual representation. Lawyer Lisa had to inform us that we really could end up hating each other by the end of this little project.
- If the WA supreme court ruling on legal marriage comes down in our favor before the baby is born we'll just put M.'s name on the birth certificate and call it done. General opinion is that the ruling WILL come down before this baby is born. It is my dream that we could be able to do this.
- Even if the ruling doesn't come down, if we bring our legal marriage certificate to the hospital and we convince some unsuspecting nurse, or even a collaborating nurse, to put M.'s name on the birth certificate, we can call it done and not do a second parent adoption.
- Lawyer Lisa said she's been seeing an upswing of people using known donors. It was nice to hear that other people are embarking on this crazy adventure as well.
- We had to admit to Lawyer Lisa that although we've known DtD for over two years, we a) don't know his address off the top of our heads, b) don't really know his birthday, c) don't know his BF's last name.
- The contract will be to us for review next week and ready to be signed the week after.
- When I told her "oh, we've already told DtD that he WILL be getting his own council."
- When M. wanted to write in the sexual activity questionnaire into the contract.
- When M. declared "We are pioneers!"
- When we revealed that DtD just happens to be in the military. Yeah, I haven't really told you about that yet, dear readers. It just adds a whole new level of complication to the issue.
posted by Sacha @ 11:15 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Hooray! Glad to hear that things are sounding positive. Damn I wish I lived in a more open-minded state. We, just this past November, were finally granted protection under state law against discrimination in employment, housing, banking, & credit. I'm not even quite sure how to go about finding a lawyer who is well versed in GLBT family law - any suggestions? Yellow pages?
nice lawyer. wow on the military thing...has he been in ative combat? exposed to chemicals used in warfare? that's the stuff I'd be afraid of. I'm a one track kind of mind:: its all about the swimmers! LOL He sounds like a wonderful person and I hope it all works out
No, he hasn't seen active combat and no exposure to yucky chemicals. He doesn't smoke, drink caffeine and eats mostly organic. : )
I'm glad it went so well. That would be so cool that you could get your name on the BC from the get-go. However, there was that case somethere (California maybe?) where the women got the non-bio mom listed on the BC and then broke up and the non-bio mom had never adopted because she didn't think she needed to and the bio- mom got a judge to strike the non-bio mom's name off the certificate and declare the child not hers.
Not that I think Sacha would do that. And the State Supreme court in this case may have ruled for the non-bio mom, but maybe you could ask your lawyer about the implications of that?
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