Abstract
The best interest of the child is the federal mandate, but it is just an ideal for same-sex parents with children adopted from North Carolina's foster care system. a same-sex couple can jointly foster in North Carolina, but once an adoption decree is issued, one parent becomes a legal stranger. a second parent adoption would allow a non-married spouse to adopt their partner's child. Little was known about the experiences of the hidden population in North Carolina. the framework for the study is Procedural Justice. the qualitative phenomenological study affirmed prior research and filled a gap in literature with regard to the understanding the families legal challenges. the study successfully described the families lived experiences and could potentially inform public policy makers, social workers, the hidden population and educators.
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