My husband is a recovering alcoholic w/over 5 years of sobriety. Since he & his ex became separated in 2001, (we met afterward and he got divorced in '03) she has succeeded at parental alienation with both of his teenage children. It devastated him and he sought a therapist to try to cope. In pursuing adoption, we have read that AA and therapy are like scarlet letters in home studies. People who have not gone through this cannot possibly understand a person now in good mental health, having to disclose these issues and jeopardizing a chance at adoption or delaying the process by a very long time. Does anyone know in the state of Illinois if an agency can access medical (insurance) records which would show (verify) he had seen a therapist for depression or a psychiatrist for medication to get to sleep recently? In addition, people that don't know about recovery have ignorant thoughts. Yet, there are active drug addicts, sexual predators and awful abusive, neglectful people that are allowed to be parents. In addition, AA is anonymous for a reason. If anyone has any experience here, it would be appreciated! We are afraid our dream of a family will never happen now!

Thanks in advance,
Lucy

My suggestion is to consult with a local adoption attorney who can give you tips about how to effectively broach the topic. There are likely parents who were allowed to adopt where the parent had past problems that are past.