An adopted child includes a child lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

Long-term foster placements may turn into de facto or, eventually, legal adoptions.

They referred to her as their adopted daughter, even though no legal adoption occurred.

The spokesman, Christian Rodriguez, said all were going through processes for legal adoption and citizenship.

While there, she will look for Turtle's relatives and see if they will consent to a legal adoption.

The necessary formalities for legal adoption were under way, but they hadn't yet been completed.

It was also a law making adoption legal.

We are in no way opposed to legal adoptions.

So their legal adoption would not make much practical difference, beyond perhaps standardizing their forms.

However, since a legal adoption had never occurred, Smiegel was ultimately granted custody of her son.