Adoption and family formation often begin with love, commitment, and the desire to create something permanent, but each path also requires the right legal foundation. Foster + Bloom helps families in North Richland Hills and throughout Texas navigate adoption, surrogacy, and ART matters with clear guidance and compassionate legal guidance.
We assist Texas families with a comprehensive range of family formation services, including:
- Foster Care Adoption Finalization: Guiding families through the transition from foster placement to permanent parenthood, including finalization proceedings and related legal requirements.
- Stepparent Adoption: Formalizing the parenting role of a stepparent who is already deeply involved in a child’s daily life.
- Relative and Kinship Adoption: Helping grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and other relatives create long-term legal stability for children already in their care.
- Domestic Infant Adoption: Assisting with agency adoptions, private placements, birth parent consents, interstate adoption requirements, and finalization.
- International Adoption Finalization: Helping families complete re-adoptions, recognition proceedings, and other legal steps necessary after an international adoption.
- Second-Parent Adoption: Ensuring equal legal protections for LGBTQ+ and unmarried parents who are building their families together.
- Adult Adoption: Formalizing longstanding parent-child relationships for inheritance planning, family recognition, and other legal purposes.
Why I Practice in Family Law: "There is nothing more rewarding than helping people build the families they have always dreamed of. By focusing the vast majority of my practice on adoption, alongside select work in assisted reproduction, I have the unique privilege of guiding parents through complex legal journeys. Ultimately, my goal is to help children find loving, permanent homes and provide the secure legal foundation that allows families to thrive." Why I Practice in Family Law: "Every child deserves a safe and loving home. It is an absolute privilege to help clients navigate the extreme highs and lows of their unique family building journeys."Meet Your Texas Attorneys

Eric Freeby,
Member
Alyssa Jacobs,
Member
Foster Care Adoption Attorneys in North Richland Hills
Welcoming a child into your home through the foster care system is an incredible act of love. However, transitioning from a foster placement to a permanent legal family involves navigating multiple layers of state administration, including the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and Child Protective Services (CPS).
We understand the specific steps required to transition a child from a foster placement to a permanent family, including:
- Termination of Parental Rights: Ensuring that all legal biological parentage rights have been thoroughly and irrevocably terminated by the state before proceeding.
- Managing Conservatorship Transition: Working with the state to transition legal custody and managing conservatorship smoothly to your family.
- Adoption Finalization: Preparing the necessary petitions, coordinating with caseworkers, and representing your family at the finalization hearing.
Our goal is to resolve the legal complexities so that you can focus entirely on helping your child stabilize and thrive in their permanent home.
Domestic Infant Adoption Legal Services in North Richland Hills
For families pursuing private domestic infant adoption, the legal process requires meticulous care to protect the interests of everyone involved, including the adoptive parents, the birth parents, and most importantly, the child.
Our domestic infant adoption attorneys in North Richland Hills provide comprehensive legal support throughout this delicate process. We assist families with:
- Birth Parent Consents: Ensuring that voluntary relinquishment of parental rights is executed in strict compliance with Texas Family Code guidelines, which include specific waiting periods and witness requirements.
- Agency and Private Placements: Collaborating seamlessly with licensed adoption agencies and home study providers in the North Richland Hills area.
- Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC): Managing the legally mandated clearances if your child is born in another state, ensuring you meet all requirements before bringing your baby home to Texas.
- Court Requirements: Compiling the necessary adoption files, social studies, and background checks to secure court approval.
We provide the secure framework required for domestic infant adoption legal services, allowing you to focus on the arrival of your new baby.
Relative Adoption and Kinship Adoption in Texas
It is incredibly common for grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other family members to step in and raise a child when the biological parents are unable to do so. While these kinship arrangements often begin informally, establishing permanent legal security is vital for the child’s long-term stability, school enrollment, and medical care.
We guide kinship caregivers in North Richland Hills through:
- Voluntary and Involuntary Termination: Navigating the legal steps to address the biological parents’ rights, whether through voluntary relinquishment or court-ordered termination based on the child’s best interests.
- Kinship Home Assessments: Preparing your household for the modified home studies often required by Tarrant County courts for relative adoptions.
- Legal Protections: Transforming a temporary caretaking situation into a permanent, legally recognized parent-child relationship.
Securing a relative and kinship adoption ensures your family has the permanent legal authority to protect and care for the child you love.
Stepparent Adoption Attorneys in North Richland Hills
Many stepparents take on the responsibilities of parenthood long before an adoption is finalized. Stepparent adoption allows families to legally recognize that relationship while creating greater stability and protection for the future. Stepparent adoptions in Texas often involve:
- Consent Requirements: In many cases, the child’s other biological parent must consent to the adoption before it can move forward.
- Termination of Parental Rights: If consent is unavailable, the court may need to terminate the other parent’s rights before the adoption can be finalized. This may occur through a voluntary relinquishment or under specific circumstances recognized by Texas law.
- Court Evaluations and Clearances: Depending on the family’s circumstances, the court may require background checks, social studies, or other evaluations before approving the adoption.
Once finalized, a stepparent adoption creates a permanent legal parent-child relationship and gives the adoptive parent the same rights and responsibilities as a biological parent. For many blended families, adoption provides legal recognition of a bond that has already been built through years of love, support, and commitment.
Second-Parent Adoption for LGBTQ+ and Unmarried Parents
Every family deserves to be fully recognized and protected under the law, regardless of how that family was built. For LGBTQ+ couples and unmarried partners, establishing clear, legally binding parental rights is a critical step in securing your child’s future.
Second-parent adoption allows a non-biological or non-gestational parent to establish a permanent legal parent-child relationship, helping create greater certainty and protection for the family. This legal process provides:
- Unquestionable Parental Rights: Ensuring that both parents are fully recognized on the child’s birth certificate and have equal legal standing under Texas law.
- Protection Across State Lines: Securing an adoption decree, which is recognized nationwide under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution, ensuring your parental rights remain secure wherever you travel or move.
- Assisted Reproduction Clarity: Working alongside families who have used donor conception to ensure that non-biological parents are fully protected.
Whether you need assistance with parentage orders, gamete donor agreements, or second-parent adoptions, we provide a warm, inclusive environment focused on protecting the family you have built.
Adult Adoption Attorneys in North Richland Hills
Adoption is not limited to minor children. Often, adults who have shared a parent-child relationship for years choose to formalize their bond legally. This is a meaningful way to honor the people who raised you and establish a permanent legal legacy. Common reasons for pursuing an adult adoption in North Richland Hills include:
- Inheritance Planning: Ensuring that an adult child has the legal right to inherit from a stepparent or parental figure under Texas probate laws.
- Family Recognition: Formalizing a lifelong bond between a stepparent and stepchild, or a foster parent and former foster child, once the child reaches adulthood.
- Simplified Legal Procedures: Adult adoptions in Texas do not require home studies or the termination of biological parental rights, making the process straightforward and deeply celebratory.
We handle the necessary petitions and court filings with care, helping you officially align your legal reality with the relationships in your heart.
International Adoption Attorneys in North Richland Hills
Bringing a child home from another country often involves multiple layers of law, including international adoption requirements, federal immigration procedures, and Texas court processes.
Even after a child arrives in the United States, families may need to complete additional legal steps to ensure the adoption is properly recognized and documented under Texas law. International adoption matters often involve:
- Foreign Decree Recognition: Taking the necessary steps to ensure a foreign adoption decree is recognized and enforceable under Texas law.
- Re-Adoption or Finalization Proceedings: Completing a Texas court process that creates a state record of the parent-child relationship and, in some circumstances, re-establishes the adoption under Texas law.
- Amended Birth Certificate: Obtaining a Texas-issued birth certificate that reflects the child’s legal parentage.
- Citizenship Documentation: Addressing citizenship-related requirements and ensuring the child has the appropriate legal documentation for life in the United States.
Completing these steps can provide families with greater legal clarity and help ensure their child’s adoption is fully recognized at both the state and federal levels.
Why Families in North Richland Hills Choose Foster + Bloom
Families deserve clear guidance, dependable advocacy, and a legal team that understands the significance of the adoption process. We combine adoption experience with compassionate support, helping families navigate each step with confidence.
- Expertise with Heart: With more than 185 years of combined experience across our nationwide team, we have helped hundreds of families navigate adoption and family-building matters. We pair deep legal knowledge with a genuine understanding of the emotions that often accompany the adoption journey.
- Clarity in Complexity: Adoption laws and court requirements can be difficult to navigate. We break down each step into clear, understandable guidance so families always know what to expect.
- Personalized Support: No two adoption stories are alike. Whether you are pursuing a foster care adoption, stepparent adoption, domestic infant adoption, or another path, we tailor our approach to your family’s unique circumstances.
- National Strength, Local Insight: We combine the resources and experience of a national family-building law firm with a strong understanding of the legal processes Texas families encounter throughout the adoption journey.
At Foster + Bloom, our goal is to create a clear path forward so families can focus on what matters most: welcoming a child into a permanent and loving home.
Talk to a Local Texas Adoption Attorney
Every adoption journey is different, but each one is rooted in the same hope: creating a secure and lasting future for a child. Whether you are exploring your options, navigating the legal process, or preparing for finalization, understanding your path forward can bring clarity and confidence.
At Foster + Bloom, we believe every child deserves the stability of a permanent family and every family deserves a strong legal foundation. We are honored to help families create lasting bonds that will support generations to come.
