Sad State of Affairs
By Kathy
My partner and I have two children. Our son was adopted through the local department of Social Services when he was 2 1/2 years old (he's now 9) and our daughter was adopted through a private agency at 4 months old (she's now 3).
Because we live in Virginia, where second-parent adoption is not permitted, the children have only one legal parent. Unfortunately, the parent of record makes only about one-fifth what the legally invisible parent makes in terms of income. If the legally invisible parent were to die, the remainder of the family would find itself in dire financial straits and unable to collect social security despite the fact that we've been a family from day one. In fact, if the parent of record were to die, it's possible that, in spite of wills and other legal documents, one of her biological family members could fight the legally invisible parent in court for custody and win. It's a sad state of affairs when the system conspires to deny children their own security.
Sept. 16, 2002