Adopting a child is one of the most worthwhile legal pursuits a person can undergo. Unfortunately, the Illinois adoption process can, at times, be complicated and tedious. One step in the adoption process that many adoptive families worry about is the home study. The purpose of an adoption home study is to ensure that the adoptive home is a safe, loving environment for the child to live in. Many adoptive parents are intimidated at the thought of someone coming to evaluate them and their home. They may worry that they will be deemed “not good enough” and denied the adoption. One of …

“The best interests of the child” is one of the most common phrases in the realm of family law. A child’s well-being, of course, should remain among the top priorities in proceedings for divorce, allocation of parental responsibilities, parenting time, non-parent visitation, and adoption. The challenge, however, is that determining what exactly constitutes a child’s best interests is open to interpretation. As such, each parent may fully believe that they are acting in their child’s best interests yet hold vastly different objectives regarding the outcome of the case.