Caring for Homeless Children
My question involves adoption law for the State of: Michigan
I'm writing a story that I'd like to post online. However I want to get my facts straight. My story is going to center around a man who finds a homeless child, no parent or guardian to care for them, and takes them in, adopting them. Not legally of course. I know this is BEYOND illegal and want to make that part of my story. What kind of legal troubles is he looking at?
I know in the state of Michigan (where the story will take place) Single Parent Adoption is legal, but I'm also aware how difficult single parent adoption can be to obtain. I'd like to know what trouble my character would get in for his actions and what actions he'd have to take to adopt said child.
I BELIEVE I placed this in the right area, please move it if l placed this in correctly.
Re: Caring for Homless Children
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sedaiv
I'd like to know what trouble my character would get in for his actions
Jail, and lots of it.
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sedaiv
what actions he'd have to take to adopt said child.
Hire a lawyer and properly go through the adoption process.
Re: Caring for Homeless Children
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sedaiv
My story is going to center around a man who finds a homeless child...
How old?
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...no parent or guardian to care for them...
Why not?
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...and takes them in...
Doing what to inform the legal authorities -- police and protective services -- about the situation?
You can do a lot of imaginary stuff in a story, but if you want to prevent a story with a degree of verisimilitude you're going to need to provide some details, and deal with or skirt the issues that would normally have the child taken into protective custody and placed with a licensed home or foster parent.
Re: Caring for Homeless Children
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Mr. Knowitall
How old?
Why not?
Doing what to inform the legal authorities -- police and protective services -- about the situation?
You can do a lot of imaginary stuff in a story, but if you want to prevent a story with a degree of verisimilitude you're going to need to provide some details, and deal with or skirt the issues that would normally have the child taken into protective custody and placed with a licensed home or foster parent.
Firstly: Verisimilitude THAT is my $5 world of the day, thank you :)
Now for your questions...
Child's age I decided on would be 12, turning 13 while in care of the adult.
Mother is dead, father is non-existent/absent.
Main character NEVER contacts police, the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (I THINK I named it right) or CYP/CYS or any other child services. Reason being, he knows where he screwed up with his children and sees this as an opportunity to redeem himself and his wife is deceased.
My idea was for the adult to going home from a bad night at work (still deciding between MMA Fighter & Wrestling, both are high paying but dangerous jobs that carry a lot of negative stigma and I also know a fair bit about them too, thinking MMA fighter as I'd like the character to start hitting a dry spot and be in danger of losing his job because of poor performance, have you seen anyone more than X-5-X in MMA not named Frank/Ken Shamrock or Chuck Lidell (SP?)?
If there's any other information I can give up to help you with helping make this story more truthful, PLEASE let me know at your soonest convenience :)
Re: Caring for Homeless Children
As I advised you in your other thread, this could be considered kidnapping and/or abduction. While nothing might happen for awhile, as soon as certain things raise their ugly heads (like enrolling the child in school, registering the child for home schooling, obtaining an SSN card and health benefits for the child, taking the child to the doctor, dentist or ER, and raising your hand with the intent of formally adopting the child, among other things), the child will be taken away from you and you will be facing felony jail time.
Re: Caring for Homeless Children
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sedaiv
Firstly: Verisimilitude THAT is my $5 world of the day, thank you :)
Now for your questions...
Child's age I decided on would be 12, turning 13 while in care of the adult.
Mother is dead, father is non-existent/absent.
Main character NEVER contacts police, the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (I THINK I named it right) or CYP/CYS or any other child services. Reason being, he knows where he screwed up with his children and sees this as an opportunity to redeem himself and his wife is deceased.
My idea was for the adult to going home from a bad night at work (still deciding between MMA Fighter & Wrestling, both are high paying but dangerous jobs that carry a lot of negative stigma and I also know a fair bit about them too, thinking MMA fighter as I'd like the character to start hitting a dry spot and be in danger of losing his job because of poor performance, have you seen anyone more than X-5-X in MMA not named Frank/Ken Shamrock or Chuck Lidell (SP?)?
If there's any other information I can give up to help you with helping make this story more truthful, PLEASE let me know at your soonest convenience :)
Doing your own research doesn't typically involve asking people to do it for you.
Re: Caring for Homeless Children
Since you supposely have knowledge about MMA Fighter & Wrestling, you need to write about that and leave the children out of it because you know nothing about what you're talking about when it comes to the children. I know that you say your story is made up, but if you are so concerned about things being accurrate, you don't have any foundation to build on because you have no knowledge about how the laws work and what is required when doing basic things with children. I can't imagine anyone could be so naive on the subject of abandoned children that they would think that they could get away with the things that you have mentioned here, but apparently, you are.
Re: Caring for Homeless Children
It is possible that no criminal charges would come of this. I realize that the knee-jerk reaction of most non-lawyers will be that this cannot be anything but illegal, but like most anything else the details are incredibly important. That’s why Mr. Knowitall was asking questions to start drawing out that detail.
Re: Caring for Homeless Children
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sedaiv
Child's age I decided on would be 12, turning 13 while in care of the adult.
What you have to be careful about is whether anybody from the outside of the situation is going to immediately think of this guy.
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Quoting sedaiv
Mother is dead, father is non-existent/absent.
Non-existent... I'm assuming that we're not doing a Biblical allegory here, so I'm going to interpret that as "not on the birth certificate, possible father's identity unknown to the child." If the father is known to the child but has been absent for a long time, it complicates your main character's legal position.
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Quoting sedaiv
Main character NEVER contacts police, the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (I THINK I named it right) or CYP/CYS or any other child services. Reason being, he knows where he screwed up with his children and sees this as an opportunity to redeem himself and his wife is deceased.
I can see lots of opportunity for internal dialog here, as well as drama between the characters. You could add into the mix prior CPS investigations of the child, and even a possible prior foster care placement, as reasons why the child might go along with the plan, or even her suspicions of protective services and foster care based upon the reports of a peer.
It is perfectly legal to leave your child in the care of a responsible adult, although it's something most people only do for a short period of time, or for which they reply upon extended family (or less typically, a close family friend or parent of the peer of the child) for a longer period of placement. So if the man were to say, "Mom entrusted the child to me before she died", and the child were to back that story up, he would be able to seek services for her (e.g., enrolling her in school) as if she were a homeless child. If he were to try to formalize his care into a guardianship, which would be necessary for certain aspects of care such as adding the child to his health insurance, things would become more tricky.
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Dogmatique
Doing your own research doesn't typically involve asking people to do it for you.
Authors frequently interview experts and turn to outside resources when they are trying to write about matters they don't fully understand. I will grant, some authors do not appear to do a lick of research and manage to produce bestsellers anyway (and in case you were thinking it, I'm definitely not thinking of Mary Higgins Clark), but the acknowledgements sections of many novels will include experts who shared their time with the author.