Servicios Legales de PR (SLPR) GivingTuesday 2021

Allow us to share another story that shows how services we are providing make it possible that low-income individuals and communities have equal access to justice.

Sherri knows no other parents than Ana and Gerry. Since she was one year and four months old, she has lived with them, who welcomed her as participants in the Family Department's foster care program. Ana and Gerry wanted to adopt her ever since. However, the opposition of the biological family did not allow them, even though they could not take care of her, nor did they visit her.

Twenty-four years later, this family approached Puerto Rico Legal Services, Fajardo Service Center, to give way to their heart's desire of formalizing what has been their family for so long through adoption.

For Sherri, reciprocating her adoptive parents for the attention and assistance they gave her since she was a child became more important now when they have suffered health problems. Because she was not recognized as their daughter, she faced difficulties in assisting them with their illness and treatment. For Ana it was doubly significant because she too had been adopted.

Attorney Barbosa, who handled this case, submitted the adoption petition to the Fajardo Court. Being already a young adult and having resided with them before reaching 18 years of age, the legal procedure exempts the parents from notifying them, since they no longer hold parental authority. At the hearing, it was possible to verify the love and desire to establish themselves as a family and that there was no legal impediment.

In an emotional hearing, the Fajardo Court granted recognition before the law to this family that already existed de facto.

As we thank you for your support, we vow to continue to help those in need of our services.