Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Overcoming the Odds: Shares her personal journey from a traumatic childhood to becoming an advocate for children in foster care.

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Overcoming the Odds: Shares her personal journey from a traumatic childhood to becoming an advocate for children in foster care. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: I'm Rashan McDonald host the weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show.
• 0:04
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  Speaker 1: Now, let's get started.
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  Speaker 2: A managing attorney at the law firm of Falida Cordog,
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  Speaker 2: she is an adoption attorney and foster care advocate. Her
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  Speaker 2: firm specializes in adoption law and family law. After witnessing
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  Speaker 2: unsettling incidents involving children, she believed that she could best
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  Speaker 2: serve the children of Georgia by becoming an attorney. Please
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  Speaker 2: welcome to Money Making Conversations Master Class. Attorney Felita Cordog, How.
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  Speaker 3: You doing wonderful? Thank you for having me first.
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  Speaker 2: That's a lot to say. What age were you inspired
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  Speaker 2: by this? You know, say that that motivated you to
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  Speaker 2: be an attorney?
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  Speaker 3: I actually at a very young age in my teens. Okay,
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  Speaker 3: I kind of took the senior group though I didn't
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  Speaker 3: start law school until my early thirties.
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  Speaker 1: They congratulations, atleast you followed your dream. This is your dream,
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  Speaker 1: right dream? Okay? Why was the delay in pursuing law?
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  Speaker 3: Just life, other things happening. I had a child unplanned,
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  Speaker 3: but became blessed in my life, got married, became a homemaker,
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  Speaker 3: and then after all that, I decided it was time
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  Speaker 3: for me to get started doing what I really wanted
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  Speaker 3: to do.
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  Speaker 1: That's inspirational, don't you believe?
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  Speaker 3: I think it is because a lot of.
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  Speaker 2: People are sitting at home right now questioning what they
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  Speaker 2: want to do with their lives, and they're, like I said,
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  Speaker 2: pumping the brakes on. What they should be doing is
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  Speaker 2: putting their foot on the gas and planning an option
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  Speaker 2: to be successful. Before we get into your background and
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  Speaker 2: an adoption, law and foster care, being an advocate in
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  Speaker 2: those areas, what enabled you to get in the direction,
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  Speaker 2: get back on the saddle, in the saddle to pursue
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  Speaker 2: this degree in law in your thirties.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I, like a lot of people, I have a
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  Speaker 3: story and I wanted to turn that story of pain.
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  Speaker 3: It became my passion. When I was very young, my
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  Speaker 3: brother and I we were really small, and my mom
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  Speaker 3: died from domestic violence, so we were pretty much poor.
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  Speaker 3: Friend my mom was deceased and my dad gone to prison,
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  Speaker 3: and I was very fortunate and very blessed that we
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  Speaker 3: didn't have to go into the foster care system because
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  Speaker 3: we had family to take care of us. My mother's
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  Speaker 3: brother became our legal guardian, he and his wife, and
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  Speaker 3: my mother's sister, and my mother parents, my return of
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  Speaker 3: grandparents helped raised us. But as I got older, I
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  Speaker 3: learned that that wasn't the case for everyone. That a
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  Speaker 3: lot of children did end up in foster care because
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  Speaker 3: they didn't have that family or suitable family to take
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  Speaker 3: care of them. And so becoming an adoption attorney and
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  Speaker 3: a foster care advocate it was just my way of
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  Speaker 3: showing my gratitude to God and to my family. And
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  Speaker 3: so I said, well, you know, since everybody isn't able
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  Speaker 3: to have that support system, I can do something to
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  Speaker 3: help bring awareness to these children that are in foster care.
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking to attorney Felita Corna.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, what is the difference between adoption and foster care.
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  Speaker 3: So of course, adoption is a legal situation where you
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  Speaker 3: become the permanent parents of a child. It's permanent as
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  Speaker 3: opposed to foster care, which is a temporary situation because
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  Speaker 3: when a child comes into foster care, the primary goal
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  Speaker 3: is to reunite that child with his biological affairs. Oh okay,
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  Speaker 3: so that's the goal. So it's permits, it's it can
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  Speaker 3: turn into permiten, that's not the initial goal, okay, but
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  Speaker 3: there are sometimes when that that that doesn't happen.
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  Speaker 2: So then sure a child is taken out of a
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  Speaker 2: parent home, maybe prison or physical ailments or drugs, an
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  Speaker 2: environment that's not safe, right, okay, and move to another
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  Speaker 2: environment that they feel will give you a better opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to succeed, right and live a successful way.
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  Speaker 3: To live successful lives. And and you know, like you say,
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  Speaker 3: the first thing is to ensure their safety, their physical safety, okay,
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  Speaker 3: and also to uh like you said, make sure that
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  Speaker 3: there's someone there to provide for their uh safety. You
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  Speaker 3: know their educational needs, that you know their physical needs.
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  Speaker 3: Make sure that they are taken to the doctors, uh
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  Speaker 3: to get check ups and all those kinds of things. So,
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  Speaker 3: like I said, it's supposed to be permanent, but of
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  Speaker 3: course there are times when a child cannot be reunited
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  Speaker 3: with that biological family and so and when that happens,
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  Speaker 3: then that child who's in foster care becomes eligible for adoption.
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  Speaker 2: Right now, when you look at yourself, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: said you had a support system.
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  Speaker 1: That enabled you to live a normal life.
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  Speaker 2: What is the life of a child at an adoption facility.
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  Speaker 3: So of course that that can vary with a child.
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  Speaker 1: And let's just talk about the state of Georgia.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, so where so where they are so falter care.
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  Speaker 3: There's a couple of different ways that a child is
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  Speaker 3: placed in foster care here in Georgia. They can be
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  Speaker 3: placed with a foster family, right okay, Okay, So they
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  Speaker 3: can also be placed.
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  Speaker 2: Which means that that's a family that already has foster.
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  Speaker 3: Kids, has the family that already has fus. It could
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  Speaker 3: be a first time foster okay, it could be a
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  Speaker 3: first time foster parent. It could be a pair of
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  Speaker 3: foster parent who's been doing this for years. It could
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  Speaker 3: be a single individual, and it could be a married couple. Okay, okay,
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  Speaker 3: So they are placed in that in that like a
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  Speaker 3: home environment. Like a you know, with a family in
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  Speaker 3: a single family home, but they can also be placed
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  Speaker 3: in group homes there you know, no sound yeah, no,
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  Speaker 3: so they can you know, they can be placed in
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  Speaker 3: group homes. This this where not all of them are
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  Speaker 3: placed in the home environment, right, so they can't be
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  Speaker 3: placed in group homes as well.
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  Speaker 2: Well, let's let's talk about the whole situation where you
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  Speaker 2: kind of when you talk about caring for a child
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  Speaker 2: in that permanent environment versus the temporary environment. I know
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  Speaker 2: some friends, I have some friends who have lived successful lives,
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  Speaker 2: but they are very lots of stereotypes about what after child.
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  Speaker 1: Looked like or what they could be.
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  Speaker 2: And you have organizations out there like Big Brothers, Big
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  Speaker 2: Sisters who are set up to be there to mentor
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  Speaker 2: and provide outlets for kids who maybe with single moms
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  Speaker 2: or single single parent households or foster care situations.
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  Speaker 1: Where do you come in?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, So I come in And that's a that's a
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  Speaker 3: great point which you made about the stereotypes of what
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  Speaker 3: children uh in foster care like, so let me can
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  Speaker 3: I address that first?
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely?
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  Speaker 3: So? Yeah, so children come in too. First of all,
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  Speaker 3: come into foster care system for all types of reasons.
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  Speaker 3: I've worked with children who parents passed away mom mom
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  Speaker 3: died of an illness. A couple of years later, dad
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  Speaker 3: passed away. Had them where you know, mother passed away,
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  Speaker 3: grandmother became caretaker, then grandmother passed away. Them come in
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  Speaker 3: there where the pair went into the prison system. There
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  Speaker 3: they're going to be there for the next ten, eleven,
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  Speaker 3: twelve years, and there is no other caretaker to care
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  Speaker 3: for them. They and of course some of them are
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  Speaker 3: some of them are physically abused. Some of them have
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  Speaker 3: been physically abused. Some of them have not necessarily been abused,
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  Speaker 3: but they've been elected. Mom is on drugs. She's leaving
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  Speaker 3: the children four and five days at a time by themselves,
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  Speaker 3: and then of course that also leads the education of electors.
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  Speaker 3: Most of the time they're not going into school, and
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  Speaker 3: so sometimes there's no other family member to take them
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  Speaker 3: more there's no suitable family member. You might have somebody
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  Speaker 3: who's willing to take them, might be a wally loving person,
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  Speaker 3: but you know, they they like to smoke marijuana. They
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  Speaker 3: can't pass the drugs, and so even though they're women
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  Speaker 3: to care for these kids, they state is not gonna
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  Speaker 3: look at them as a suitable and as a suitable
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  Speaker 3: person to care of them might be so children. So
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  Speaker 3: that's one of the biggest myths too, is that all
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  Speaker 3: children in foster care have been abused and they all
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  Speaker 3: have emotional problems of mental help. Can we get rid
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  Speaker 3: of that stereotype educating like you're doing now, when we
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  Speaker 3: have people who come in and talk about actually children
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  Speaker 3: and then you know, and not just me as an
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  Speaker 3: adoption attorney, people who work in the foster care system,
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  Speaker 3: case workers, people who have been a foster, foster parent
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  Speaker 3: or adoptive parents. Uh So that's how we do it.
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  Speaker 3: We educate, we talk about it, and we let people
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  Speaker 3: see the face of foster care.
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  Speaker 1: Now, this is very emotional.
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  Speaker 2: This has to be a very emotional role that you've
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  Speaker 2: taken on, responsibility, you've taken on. How do you handle
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  Speaker 2: that because it's the first of all, the word foster
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  Speaker 2: care and the word adoption doesn't signify happiness. Okay, but
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  Speaker 2: you trying to get these young kids in a happy environment.
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  Speaker 2: I guess that's the end game for your emotion.
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  Speaker 3: Huh right, it's the endgame. It's I look at it
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  Speaker 3: as it's a job I have to do. It's just
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  Speaker 3: when when it's just your your calling, you just got
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  Speaker 3: to do it. And there are some some emotional times
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  Speaker 3: that I have, like you know, when I have uh finalized,
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  Speaker 3: help finalize an adoption and from especially from foster care.
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  Speaker 3: I do all types of adoptions. I do private adoptions,
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  Speaker 3: I do step pair of adoptions, I do grand pair
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  Speaker 3: of adoptions. Uh uh. The only thing I don't do
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  Speaker 3: is international adoptions. I don't do. So I do all
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  Speaker 3: types of adoptions, but I am a foster care advoct
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  Speaker 3: because I love advocating for children of Falster care to
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  Speaker 3: help them find the adoption families because we walk at
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: the end of the day, we want kids out of
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  Speaker 3: falster care. Absolutely, we don't want them age out of
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  Speaker 3: Falster care.
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  Speaker 2: So that's a whole the matter, Chris, for you before
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  Speaker 2: we're going to further the are if someone takes on
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  Speaker 2: a child in foster care, are they given any funds?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah yeah in the state of Georgia, yeah, they
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  Speaker 3: are given stipends to help take care of those kids
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  Speaker 3: in foster care. And a lot of the kids in
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  Speaker 3: falster adoption not not adoption once because once the adoption
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  Speaker 3: is finalized, you stand in the parent's place of a parent,
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  Speaker 3: as if that was your biological child. But while they're
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  Speaker 3: in foster care, they can they can't get subsidies, and
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: they and most of the kids also qualify for Medicaid
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  Speaker 3: while they're in foster care as well. Okay, cool, so
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  Speaker 3: so but to answer finish your other point about being emotional,
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  Speaker 3: it can be. No. One of the times that I
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: get most emotional is that when I do an adoption
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  Speaker 3: and there are some falster kids that have come out
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  Speaker 3: of foster care, they found there forever families. That's beautiful,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: but it may be that they have still have a
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  Speaker 3: sibling in falster care because usually when children they're part
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  Speaker 3: of a sibling group. If one is in foster care,
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  Speaker 3: nine times out of ten, the other siblings are in
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  Speaker 3: foster care as well. And so it's kind of heartbreaking,
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  Speaker 3: you know, just happy because you know this child has
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  Speaker 3: filed or sometimes sibling groups, they found there forever family,
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  Speaker 3: but they still got a sibling left in foster care.
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  Speaker 3: So that's the part that really gets to me.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hard.
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  Speaker 2: But there are different types of adoption, right, Let's not
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  Speaker 2: let's just say adoption is adoption. Explain us a different
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  Speaker 2: type of adoption. First of all, let me tell everybody
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  Speaker 2: who I'm talking to. I'm talking to a founder and
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: artistic excuse me, I'm talking to the Felita Cornogue and
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  Speaker 2: your firm deals with adoption agencies and an.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Advocate for foster care.
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  Speaker 2: Foster care, which means that this has been a passion
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  Speaker 2: that changed your life because you could have experienced it.
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  Speaker 2: But you have family members who came to the rescue
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  Speaker 2: because your mom was a victim of domestic vio which
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: means that she was passed away because of that violence,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: and your father went to presson.
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  Speaker 1: That happened at a.
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  Speaker 2: Very early age, and it is guided you through the
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  Speaker 2: pathway because of the fact that you had a family,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: a village, I should say, they came to your rescue,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: where if you didn't, you will be having this conversation
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: about foster care.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere.
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: We will be right back with more insights from Money
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Making Conversations Master Class. Welcome back to Money Making Conversation
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: Master Class with me Rashaun McDonald.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, like I say, there are adoptions are usually I mean,
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  Speaker 3: adoptions in itself are usually just happy things. One of
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: the it's one of the few times that somebody leaves
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: a law office where everybody's happened, because you know, when
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: somebody comes to see an attorney's because somebody's done somebody wrong.
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  Speaker 3: So adoptions are just absolutely beautiful, and like I say,
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  Speaker 3: they're you know, they're all types of adoption, just you know,
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  Speaker 3: private adoptions where people, uh, you know, they might be
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: adopting some child from adoption agency, or they might have
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: a friend. Right now, I'm working on adoption where the
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: couple is adopting actually a child, a child of a friend.
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  Speaker 3: It was unwanted pregnancy, and she did not she didn't want,
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: she didn't want.
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  Speaker 2: It's an unwanted pregnancy. So she's a friend. Now I
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: gotta stop right now. Can she come back and certainly
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: want the child?
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Not anymore? Because she has In Georgia and it varies
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: from state to state, she has surrendered her parental rights.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: The biological father has surrendered surrender his parental rights as well.
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  Speaker 3: So in Georgia you have four days to rescind that surrender.
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  Speaker 3: And so after the four days it's up. That's pretty
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  Speaker 3: much it. You can't come back.
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  Speaker 1: Foster care.
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  Speaker 2: That seems to be kind of like they don't know
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  Speaker 2: where they go back to the parents, because they may
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  Speaker 2: want to go back to their parents, so they have
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  Speaker 2: that emotion and the environment that they're in doesn't feel permanent.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about that balance.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so you know there's I don't care how
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: bad the situation is at home. You know, there's just
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: saying there's just something about that umbilical cord where that
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: child wants to be tied to that biological family. So
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: it is a traumatic expirence to be uprooted from that family,
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  Speaker 3: even if that family is not the best place for
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: that child to be. And then also the one of
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: the other reasons we want children out of foster care
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: to hopefully to be reunited with that Like you say,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: that's not gonna always happen, So we want to get
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: children out of foster cares who can't. It can't because
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: not only that children can go from foster home to
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: foster home. So it's not like, Okay, you're in this
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: foster home right now, but you know you're going to
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: be in this same home from the whole time that
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: you are in the in the what we call the
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: custody of the state. And so these children can be
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: moved from foster home to foster home and then that
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: you know, and so that's like being uprooted each time
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  Speaker 3: you're rooted. And sometimes issues and mostly it's and it
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: has a lot of times it helps. It causes children
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: to not be able bond with people because they don't
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: want to get you know, attached to this person. Then
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be moved to somewhere else. So the
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: child can have these attachment issues as well. So it
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: can be a very traumatic experience for a child to
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: be in foster care.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: What if you don't want to be a foster parent,
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: but you want to support the program, is that is
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: that an option?
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's a great that's a great question because
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: being a foster parent is not for everybody, but you
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: can still support. One of the ways you can do
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: that is like you're doing if you have a radio show,
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: a podcast, you have a television show, you can bring awareness.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: You can have people not just adoption attorneys or social
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: workers or directors of adoption agents, but you can have
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: people who've been adopted. You can have a child, a
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: teenage adult. You can have families who who've adopted child
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: or families who are foster care parents. So you can
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: you can bring awareness like you're doing. Also, you can volunteer.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: Like one of the things that Georgia has, in addition
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: to what we know it's Defectsive Department and Family and
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: Children Services, Georgia also has private foster care agencies as well.
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  Speaker 3: And what is that? So that's an agency. You know,
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: technically the child is still a ward of the state
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: because whether it's private foster care of public foster care,
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: like we know it's defects, but it's just it's an
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: agency and they do pretty much the same thing as defects.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: They oversee the children, they help find foster parents for
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: these children to go in. It's just that you're not
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: dealing with defects per se. You're just just dealing with
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: a private agency. But they still have the same responsibilities
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: and duties as it's this child was being overseen by
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: defacts itself. Okay, So you can volunteer, you know, you
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: can donate, give money. A lot of these especially these
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: private foster care agency throughout the year, they have like
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: different drives, like they might when it starts getting cold,
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: they might have a coat drive where they want to
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: buy coats for the kids. And so you can donate,
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: you know, donate money to these agencies to help them
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: care for the kids. You can also do becoming like
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: a COSTA. A CONSTA stands for quarter pointed special Advocates
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: in almost every almost every county GOTA, so almost every
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: county in Georgia has a COSTA office. And I sit
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: on the board of Rockdale Costa Rockdale County CALTA. And
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: so what a COSA does is they they're volunteers and
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: they actually train. They go through a training program where
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: they learn how to advocate for kids in foster care
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: in the juvenile court system. So that's one of the
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: things you can do to work with foster care kids.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: Become a COSSA. So there are so there are ways
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: that you can support without becoming a foster parent.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: And how do we get in touch with you?
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: Well, first way is always by telephone, okay. So the
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: number is AERA CO four zero four two nine eight
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: seven three seven three.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Is that your sale or your office?
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: That's my office? Okay, that's my office number. And then
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: also my whips se is I'll spell it out, it's
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: w w W Quornock Law. That's c O R N
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: O g l A W dot com. So W w
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: w qrdnock law dot com.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: It's my well, that's really good to hear. Now now
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: this slide back over to adoption. Is it difficult for
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: minority kids to get adopted?
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Uh? Not as like it used to be. Okay, that
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: that was okay, So because you have right now you
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: have more uh interracial adoptions for one thing, you you know,
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: so it's not that uh you know, if if a
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: minority kid is gonna be strictly adopted by a parent
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: or parents of their same ethnic group. So that's one
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: of the reasons it's not as you know, it's not
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: as difficult as it used to be because you are
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: having more of these interracial adoptions.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Okay. So that leads me to my next question.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Support services for adoptive, adoptive or adoption or foster care
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: parents because they're gonna need help, you know, like you said,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: you can say this this house is good, then the
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: child get home and taking up more time than you
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: expected or not what you expected.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: What are those support services?
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so children of Falster Care there are support services
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: for them and the family, and those can include things
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: like mental health services if that's needed. They if you're
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: the Falter Care they also have what they call respite services,
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: and that's where the foster parents might need to take
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: some time off and they might it might and it
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: might not. It might just be a day to go
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: to the spa just to take some time, just to
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: get some time to themselves or time to go shopping.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: And so they will have, like other falster care parents
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: to look after the falster care children while that parent
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: takes a day for themselves. So those are things like
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: that you know there. Of course, they you can have
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: case workers come in and talk to if you know,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: if you're having a problem or something's not quite going
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: on with the problem of this is more than what
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: you want to you thought it was gonna be, so
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: that the state can come in and they can provide
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: these wrap around services to you as well. So there
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: is a support system there for foster care parents for
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: adopt for and that's the same for foster to adopt
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: because some children, some people go into become foster care
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: parents because they know they want to adopt. So some
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: of them come in that they just gonna be falster
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: care parents, and so some of them go in because
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: they know they want adopt and they've chosen to adopt
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: from foster care, so those same services are provided to them,
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: you know before that adoption is final lot as well,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: so those services are available. And then also if you're
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: if you're adopting through an adoption agency, of course they
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: provide services. You know, those are things that you're paying for.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: They provide services, and then they can provide post adoption
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: services for you as well when you use adoption ations.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: Of the money you pay when you know it's more
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: expensive to use adoptionation, so the money you paid come
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: for those types of services as well.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Now talk a buy support.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: What qualifies you to say that you could adopt a child?
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: Okay? So right, So so with Georgia that right of course,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: of course there are legal requirements right there, age requirements,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: so in the state of Georgia, you have to be
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: at least twenty one years old. You can be either Okay,
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: that's a good thing about Georgia. You can. You can
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: if you if you a single person you want to adopt,
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: you can adopt.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: But you got to have a scare you care for
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: this show.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: So that's what's gonna come in. So so so we'll
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: talk about what the basics. The basics are you got
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: to be twenty one years older, twenty one years at
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: least twenty one years of age. If you're not related
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: to the child by blood or marriage, you've got to
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: be at least ten years older than a child that
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: you're going to adopt. Okay, Okay, Now, if you are married,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: both parties have to do the adoption petition. You can't
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: have one spouse adopted child, you know, and the other
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: spouse not adopted child if you're married and living together.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: But again, like I said, you don't have to be married,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: you can be single. Now. Of course, with that, you're
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: gonna have to go through a vetting system. Just like
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: you have to go to a vetting system become a
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: foster care parent, you have to go through a vetting system.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: When you're adopted, you're gonna have to do a criminal
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: background check. They're gonna check to see if you are
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: on a child abuse regis that, they're gonna check to
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: see if you're on a sex offender register. They're gonna
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: come out and visit your home. So they're gonna do
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: what we it's called a home technical terms home the evaluation.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: What most people know it, it's the home study. So
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: they're coming out to do the home study. Uh, they're
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: gonna look at how you get your income. Are you
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: are you able to provide for this?
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: So you got food right? Right? Hello and so and
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: then you're gonna have to uh, you know, you even
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: have to show that you're physically able to take care
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: of the child. You have to you know, if you
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: haven't been to the doctor in a while, you have
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: to go get a physical and then the doctor check
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: you out. So there is a strenuous vetting process because
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: you know, the term that we use in Georgia is
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: the best interests of the child. So we you know,
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: so we're not just gonna, you know, just give anybody
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: who comes and raise their hands and say I want
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: to adopt. There you know. There, of course, there is
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: a betting process because we have to you were, the safety.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Of children twelve months of the year and every it
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: seems like every month has a specialized day they recognized,
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: right a cause, Yeah, and November is National Adopt Month?
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, why is that significance for you?
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: Okay, So so let's talk about how how this all
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: got started. So National Adoption Month actually grew out of
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: National Adoption Day and that was instituted by Dave Thomas,
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: a lot of us knowing him as the founder of
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: Wendy and he was of course he was adopted. And
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: then there was some Fanny May and some other institutions
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: came together because they wanted to bring awareness to children
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: in foster care who needed to be adopted. So that
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: so Adoption Day just turned in. That's because that's in
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: the month of November, so it's so out of that
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: grew adoption Month. So and that that's significant for me
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: because then I talked about false care adoption all year long,
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: but we want to bring a special tension doing Adoption Month,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: and so we try to get a lot of people
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: on board to talk about adoption during the month of November.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well you asked me, I responded, because again,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: thank you for the education. This show is my main
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: conversation master class by entrepreneurship, small business, financial literacyre also
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: social and community up there, and that's what this interview
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: is about.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: You are an uplifting.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Person, my friend, attorney for Leader Cornock and on one
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: more time, how can we get in touch with you?
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Uh so, my telephone number is Eric code four zero
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: four two nine eight seven three seveny three. That is
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: my office number, the law office of Pelica Cornock and
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: so my website address is www. Coornock Law dot This.
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: Has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: Thanks to our guests and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: com to listen or register to be a guest on
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: my show. Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,