How new adoption process in North Dakota worked for one family

FARGO — Hilery Klein started with finding kids a place to call home, but it was always someone’s else’s home.

“Most of them had gotten adopted by those family members,” Klein said.

Then she finally got the chance to give her home to one of them.

“With my oldest son, it actually went pretty smoothly. We didn’t have very many hiccups with the whole process itself,” she said.

But there were many steps she had to take before she could adopt the now four-year-old.

“With the first adoption there was several home visits. It took several months to get through all of the home visits and all of the paperwork,” Klein said. “There’s tests that you have to take, you take it yourself, and then a significant other person in your life takes it.”

After that the adoption process could begin. But now under the redesigned process for North Dakota the adoption — not the foster process — starts first.

According to Adults Adopting Special Kids Assistant Director Morgan Nerat, the new rules have made the paperwork quicker.

“So we get more involved and get that paperwork rolling and get the family’s home assessments done and the approvals with the state. So then once termination of parental rights occurs, we can really dive in and get things going, and then finalize the adoption sooner,” Nerat said.

That made adopting Klein’s 3-year-old son go a lot faster with not as many home visits.

“Being that I knew what to expect, it was a lot less stressful, less kind of anxiety of the unknown of where it’s going, and how things are going to progress and how quickly,” Nerat said.

She has no biological kids of her own, so she says adopting two kids has completely changed her life.

“It’s been a blessing to be able to just kind of move forward and start taking steps to just kind of get on with our family,” Klein said.

“We’re making those steps to meet those goals. So children are in permanent, safe, loving, forever families,” Nerat said.

As Klein makes the boys feel at home. The caseworker gives each child a life story book to celebrate their adoption.

Since the streamlined process began on February 1, more than 60 children have found a home.

You can find More information about adoption in North Dakota here.

My name is Anne Sara, better known as Sara.
I was born an only child in Port-au-prince, Haiti and moved to the U.S at the age of 2.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is where I was raised.
After graduating with my bachelor degree at Albright College, I moved to Florida to continue my studies.
WDAY is the reason why I moved to North Dakota.