I don't know but I do know that I love kids and I had a Vasectomy so I don't pass my BP, and that if I adopt I always wanted a little hindu girl.

I decided not to have children. I read that children of depressives fare worse than those of schizophrenics (of which my mother was one) because they interpret the withdrawal as lack of love caused by themselves.

Of course, medication can alter all. For me, it doesn't.

Fairly sure bp's can't. That's the impression i've got anyway.

I don't know the law for sure, but to my knowledge having a mental illness doesn't have an effect on wether you can do things, your protected under the people with dissabilities act or whatever it's called, but it basically says that they can't discriminate against any dissability unless they have proof it will hinder your ability to raise a child. There are plenty of BP's who act better than non-BP's and are better parents. If everything else, like income, good home situation, all that kind of stuff checks out, and you have no history of arrests or things that shoot up a red flag for the social workers, they can't judge you as unsuitable just because of a dissability. Some state laws may be different though, but discrimination against dissabled is a big issue now and their trying to make equal rights, ect. the screening process is long, mental illness or not. Good luck to you, some social service reps can be more bonkers than us sometimes.

ah, yeah it does...hello? They screen for these things where kids are involved.

I'm still confused as to what the question is? I think I know what you are asking and I don't know the answer.

I adopted my son. Through a private adoption, through the state instead of the county. With a private attorney that specialized in adoptions. The attorney was the best in the State for adoptions.

Actually that is all he does is adoptions. He is a class act too, but I don't think he is still practicing. My wife helped deliver the baby. We knew the person through my brother and adopted her baby per her choice. My brother managed a bar for a short time and she was one of the regulars.

This was over 20 years ago. Due to my drug arrests they made us go through psychological counseling. Drug tests etc. I can't remember if ever on any tests they asked if we had any mental illness. At that time I would have said NO. I am sure they do, I would search the internet first or call some private agencies and ask them first.

We had waited and gone through a county earlier, like a year or so. We didn't disclose all our arrests and during the interview we revealed it and then they refused us. We had waited 4 years for that refusal.

That is why the attorney went through the State with us. I told him from the beginning what had happened and so he knew. We disclosed everything and they did an FBI check on us. They claimed that they would find everything but I had sealed my childhood arrests when I was 19. They didn't find any of the 11 drug and alcohol arrests made then.

The home study was the most difficult thing anyone can go through. They checked on us, sent us questionaires every week. Blah....

They even checked our references too.

BP's can adopt, I'm atleast sure of that for some states. A mental illness by it's self isn't reason to not let someone have a family. There's people who start treatment for bipolar at age 10 and then live "normal" lives, never have any issues with their illness. Just being labeled with an illness is not grounds to deny your request to adopt, atleast it shouldn't be, and I know you're not asking for opinion here but I am fairly sure that atleast in some states they allow it. Their going to do background checks and medical history and all that kind of stuff regardless of a label of disabled.

http://laws.adoption.com/statutes/review-of-state-statutes-regarding-international-adoptions-finalized-abroad.html

http://www.adoption.com/

Not only did my wife and I adopt, but we adopted a bipolar child. If you want to read the story of how that happened...click here:

http://dailystrength.org/component/option,com_mamblog/Itemid,47/task,show/action,view/id,594012/

that's really cool Thomas thanks for sharing sorry you have had such a rough time on the boards lately...chin up.

If you are then I expect you'd need to be screened by doctors and psychiatrists who'll have access to medical records etc. If there is any chance of relapse or significant instability I think they'd have doubts.

ThomasB has adopted...

but having just read ThomasBs I'm probably wrong. The adoption process over here is pretty strict.

but having just read ThomasBs I'm probably wrong. The adoption process over here is pretty strict.