Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Attorney Felita Cornog.
An adoption attorney and foster care advocate.
Felita Cornog shares her personal journey from a traumatic childhood—losing her mother to domestic violence and her father to incarceration—to becoming a passionate advocate for children in foster care. She discusses the differences between adoption and foster care, the emotional toll of her work, and how others can support children in the system even if they don’t become foster parents themselves.
🧭 Interview Outline 1. Introduction
- Felita shares that her passion for law began in her teens but she pursued it in her 30s after becoming a mother and homemaker.
2. Personal Backstory
- Felicia’s mother died from domestic violence; her father went to prison.
- She and her brother were raised by extended family, avoiding the foster system.
- This inspired her to help children who aren’t as fortunate.
Quote: “I wanted to turn that story of pain into my passion.”
3. Understanding Foster Care vs. Adoption
- Foster Care: Temporary placement with the goal of reunification.
- Adoption: Permanent legal relationship.
- Children may be placed in foster homes or group homes.
Quote: “The goal of foster care is always reunification first.”
4. Stereotypes and Realities
- Many children in foster care are not abused but neglected or orphaned.
- Misconceptions about emotional instability are common.
Quote: “That’s one of the biggest myths—that all children in foster care have emotional problems.”
5. Emotional Impact of the Work
- Finalizing adoptions is joyful but bittersweet, especially when siblings are separated.
- Felita handles all types of adoptions except international.
Quote: “Adoptions are one of the few times people leave a law office happy.”
6. Support for Foster Parents
- Foster parents receive stipends and Medicaid support.
- Services include mental health, respite care, and caseworker assistance.
7. How to Help Without Fostering
- Volunteer with CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates).
- Donate to private foster care agencies.
- Use platforms to raise awareness.
8. Adoption Process & Requirements
- Must be 21+ years old.
- Can be single or married.
- Must pass background checks, home evaluations, and physicals.
Quote: “We’re not just going to give a child to anyone who raises their hand.”
9. National Adoption Month
- Celebrated in November, inspired by Dave Thomas (Wendy’s founder).
- Aims to raise awareness for children in foster care needing adoption.
10. Closing
- Felita shares her contact info:
- 📞 Phone: (404) 298-7373
- 🌐 Website: www.cornoglaw.com
Quote: “Keep leading with your gifts. Keep winning.”
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Rashan McDonald host the weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show.
The interviews and information that this show provides off for everyone.
It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
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(00:23):
got a product, an influencer, motivational speaker, I want you
on my show.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now, let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
A managing attorney at the law firm of Falida Cordog,
she is an adoption attorney and foster care advocate. Her
firm specializes in adoption law and family law. After witnessing
unsettling incidents involving children, she believed that she could best
serve the children of Georgia by becoming an attorney. Please
welcome to Money Making Conversations Master Class. Attorney Felita Cordog, How.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
You doing wonderful? Thank you for having me first.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That's a lot to say. What age were you inspired
by this? You know, say that that motivated you to
be an attorney?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I actually at a very young age in my teens. Okay,
I kind of took the senior group though I didn't
start law school until my early thirties.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
They congratulations, atleast you followed your dream. This is your dream,
right dream? Okay? Why was the delay in pursuing law?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Just life, other things happening. I had a child unplanned,
but became blessed in my life, got married, became a homemaker,
and then after all that, I decided it was time
for me to get started doing what I really wanted
to do.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
That's inspirational, don't you believe?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I think it is because a lot of.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
People are sitting at home right now questioning what they
want to do with their lives, and they're, like I said,
pumping the brakes on. What they should be doing is
putting their foot on the gas and planning an option
to be successful. Before we get into your background and
an adoption, law and foster care, being an advocate in
those areas, what enabled you to get in the direction,
(02:03):
get back on the saddle, in the saddle to pursue
this degree in law in your thirties.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, I, like a lot of people, I have a
story and I wanted to turn that story of pain.
It became my passion. When I was very young, my
brother and I we were really small, and my mom
died from domestic violence, so we were pretty much poor.
(02:35):
Friend my mom was deceased and my dad gone to prison,
and I was very fortunate and very blessed that we
didn't have to go into the foster care system because
we had family to take care of us. My mother's
brother became our legal guardian, he and his wife, and
(02:55):
my mother's sister, and my mother parents, my return of
grandparents helped raised us. But as I got older, I
learned that that wasn't the case for everyone. That a
lot of children did end up in foster care because
they didn't have that family or suitable family to take
care of them. And so becoming an adoption attorney and
(03:17):
a foster care advocate it was just my way of
showing my gratitude to God and to my family. And
so I said, well, you know, since everybody isn't able
to have that support system, I can do something to
help bring awareness to these children that are in foster care.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I'm talking to attorney Felita Corna.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes, what is the difference between adoption and foster care.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So of course, adoption is a legal situation where you
become the permanent parents of a child. It's permanent as
opposed to foster care, which is a temporary situation because
when a child comes into foster care, the primary goal
(04:06):
is to reunite that child with his biological affairs. Oh okay,
so that's the goal. So it's permits, it's it can
turn into permiten, that's not the initial goal, okay, but
there are sometimes when that that that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So then sure a child is taken out of a
parent home, maybe prison or physical ailments or drugs, an
environment that's not safe, right, okay, and move to another
environment that they feel will give you a better opportunity
to succeed, right and live a successful way.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
To live successful lives. And and you know, like you say,
the first thing is to ensure their safety, their physical safety, okay,
and also to uh like you said, make sure that
there's someone there to provide for their uh safety. You
know their educational needs, that you know their physical needs.
Make sure that they are taken to the doctors, uh
to get check ups and all those kinds of things. So,
(05:03):
like I said, it's supposed to be permanent, but of
course there are times when a child cannot be reunited
with that biological family and so and when that happens,
then that child who's in foster care becomes eligible for adoption.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Right now, when you look at yourself, you know, I
said you had a support system.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
That enabled you to live a normal life.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
What is the life of a child at an adoption facility.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So of course that that can vary with a child.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And let's just talk about the state of Georgia.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Okay, so where so where they are so falter care.
There's a couple of different ways that a child is
placed in foster care here in Georgia. They can be
placed with a foster family, right okay, Okay, So they
can also be placed.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Which means that that's a family that already has foster.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Kids, has the family that already has fus. It could
be a first time foster okay, it could be a
first time foster parent. It could be a pair of
foster parent who's been doing this for years. It could
be a single individual, and it could be a married couple. Okay, okay,
So they are placed in that in that like a
home environment. Like a you know, with a family in
(06:19):
a single family home, but they can also be placed
in group homes there you know, no sound yeah, no,
so they can you know, they can be placed in
group homes. This this where not all of them are
placed in the home environment, right, so they can't be
placed in group homes as well.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, let's let's talk about the whole situation where you
kind of when you talk about caring for a child
in that permanent environment versus the temporary environment. I know
some friends, I have some friends who have lived successful lives,
but they are very lots of stereotypes about what after child.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Looked like or what they could be.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And you have organizations out there like Big Brothers, Big
Sisters who are set up to be there to mentor
and provide outlets for kids who maybe with single moms
or single single parent households or foster care situations.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Where do you come in?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Okay, So I come in And that's a that's a
great point which you made about the stereotypes of what
children uh in foster care like, so let me can
I address that first?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So? Yeah, so children come in too. First of all,
come into foster care system for all types of reasons.
I've worked with children who parents passed away mom mom
died of an illness. A couple of years later, dad
passed away. Had them where you know, mother passed away,
grandmother became caretaker, then grandmother passed away. Them come in
(08:00):
there where the pair went into the prison system. There
they're going to be there for the next ten, eleven,
twelve years, and there is no other caretaker to care
for them. They and of course some of them are
some of them are physically abused. Some of them have
been physically abused. Some of them have not necessarily been abused,
(08:22):
but they've been elected. Mom is on drugs. She's leaving
the children four and five days at a time by themselves,
and then of course that also leads the education of electors.
Most of the time they're not going into school, and
so sometimes there's no other family member to take them
more there's no suitable family member. You might have somebody
who's willing to take them, might be a wally loving person,
(08:44):
but you know, they they like to smoke marijuana. They
can't pass the drugs, and so even though they're women
to care for these kids, they state is not gonna
look at them as a suitable and as a suitable
person to care of them might be so children. So
that's one of the biggest myths too, is that all
(09:04):
children in foster care have been abused and they all
have emotional problems of mental help. Can we get rid
of that stereotype educating like you're doing now, when we
have people who come in and talk about actually children
and then you know, and not just me as an
adoption attorney, people who work in the foster care system,
(09:27):
case workers, people who have been a foster, foster parent
or adoptive parents. Uh So that's how we do it.
We educate, we talk about it, and we let people
see the face of foster care.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Now, this is very emotional.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
This has to be a very emotional role that you've
taken on, responsibility, you've taken on. How do you handle
that because it's the first of all, the word foster
care and the word adoption doesn't signify happiness. Okay, but
you trying to get these young kids in a happy environment.
(10:03):
I guess that's the end game for your emotion.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Huh right, it's the endgame. It's I look at it
as it's a job I have to do. It's just
when when it's just your your calling, you just got
to do it. And there are some some emotional times
that I have, like you know, when I have uh finalized,
help finalize an adoption and from especially from foster care.
(10:26):
I do all types of adoptions. I do private adoptions,
I do step pair of adoptions, I do grand pair
of adoptions. Uh uh. The only thing I don't do
is international adoptions. I don't do. So I do all
types of adoptions, but I am a foster care advoct
because I love advocating for children of Falster care to
help them find the adoption families because we walk at
(10:48):
the end of the day, we want kids out of
falster care. Absolutely, we don't want them age out of
Falster care.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So that's a whole the matter, Chris, for you before
we're going to further the are if someone takes on
a child in foster care, are they given any funds?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah? Yeah yeah in the state of Georgia, yeah, they
are given stipends to help take care of those kids
in foster care. And a lot of the kids in
falster adoption not not adoption once because once the adoption
is finalized, you stand in the parent's place of a parent,
as if that was your biological child. But while they're
in foster care, they can they can't get subsidies, and
(11:26):
they and most of the kids also qualify for Medicaid
while they're in foster care as well. Okay, cool, so
so but to answer finish your other point about being emotional,
it can be. No. One of the times that I
get most emotional is that when I do an adoption
and there are some falster kids that have come out
of foster care, they found there forever families. That's beautiful,
(11:51):
but it may be that they have still have a
sibling in falster care because usually when children they're part
of a sibling group. If one is in foster care,
nine times out of ten, the other siblings are in
foster care as well. And so it's kind of heartbreaking,
you know, just happy because you know this child has
(12:12):
filed or sometimes sibling groups, they found there forever family,
but they still got a sibling left in foster care.
So that's the part that really gets to me.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
But there are different types of adoption, right, Let's not
let's just say adoption is adoption. Explain us a different
type of adoption. First of all, let me tell everybody
who I'm talking to. I'm talking to a founder and
artistic excuse me, I'm talking to the Felita Cornogue and
your firm deals with adoption agencies and an.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Advocate for foster care.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Foster care, which means that this has been a passion
that changed your life because you could have experienced it.
But you have family members who came to the rescue
because your mom was a victim of domestic vio which
means that she was passed away because of that violence,
and your father went to presson.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
That happened at a.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Very early age, and it is guided you through the
pathway because of the fact that you had a family,
a village, I should say, they came to your rescue,
where if you didn't, you will be having this conversation
about foster care.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
We will be right back with more insights from Money
Making Conversations Master Class. Welcome back to Money Making Conversation
Master Class with me Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
So, yeah, like I say, there are adoptions are usually I mean,
adoptions in itself are usually just happy things. One of
the it's one of the few times that somebody leaves
a law office where everybody's happened, because you know, when
somebody comes to see an attorney's because somebody's done somebody wrong.
So adoptions are just absolutely beautiful, and like I say,
(13:51):
they're you know, they're all types of adoption, just you know,
private adoptions where people, uh, you know, they might be
adopting some child from adoption agency, or they might have
a friend. Right now, I'm working on adoption where the
couple is adopting actually a child, a child of a friend.
(14:13):
It was unwanted pregnancy, and she did not she didn't want,
she didn't want.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
It's an unwanted pregnancy. So she's a friend. Now I
gotta stop right now. Can she come back and certainly
want the child?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Not anymore? Because she has In Georgia and it varies
from state to state, she has surrendered her parental rights.
The biological father has surrendered surrender his parental rights as well.
So in Georgia you have four days to rescind that surrender.
And so after the four days it's up. That's pretty
(14:51):
much it. You can't come back.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Foster care.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That seems to be kind of like they don't know
where they go back to the parents, because they may
want to go back to their parents, so they have
that emotion and the environment that they're in doesn't feel permanent.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Talk about that balance.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, and so you know there's I don't care how
bad the situation is at home. You know, there's just
saying there's just something about that umbilical cord where that
child wants to be tied to that biological family. So
it is a traumatic expirence to be uprooted from that family,
(15:32):
even if that family is not the best place for
that child to be. And then also the one of
the other reasons we want children out of foster care
to hopefully to be reunited with that Like you say,
that's not gonna always happen, So we want to get
children out of foster cares who can't. It can't because
not only that children can go from foster home to
(15:53):
foster home. So it's not like, Okay, you're in this
foster home right now, but you know you're going to
be in this same home from the whole time that
you are in the in the what we call the
custody of the state. And so these children can be
moved from foster home to foster home and then that
(16:13):
you know, and so that's like being uprooted each time
you're rooted. And sometimes issues and mostly it's and it
has a lot of times it helps. It causes children
to not be able bond with people because they don't
want to get you know, attached to this person. Then
(16:35):
I'm going to be moved to somewhere else. So the
child can have these attachment issues as well. So it
can be a very traumatic experience for a child to
be in foster care.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
What if you don't want to be a foster parent,
but you want to support the program, is that is
that an option?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, yeah, that's a great that's a great question because
being a foster parent is not for everybody, but you
can still support. One of the ways you can do
that is like you're doing if you have a radio show,
a podcast, you have a television show, you can bring awareness.
You can have people not just adoption attorneys or social
(17:15):
workers or directors of adoption agents, but you can have
people who've been adopted. You can have a child, a
teenage adult. You can have families who who've adopted child
or families who are foster care parents. So you can
you can bring awareness like you're doing. Also, you can volunteer.
(17:39):
Like one of the things that Georgia has, in addition
to what we know it's Defectsive Department and Family and
Children Services, Georgia also has private foster care agencies as well.
And what is that? So that's an agency. You know,
technically the child is still a ward of the state
because whether it's private foster care of public foster care,
(18:01):
like we know it's defects, but it's just it's an
agency and they do pretty much the same thing as defects.
They oversee the children, they help find foster parents for
these children to go in. It's just that you're not
dealing with defects per se. You're just just dealing with
a private agency. But they still have the same responsibilities
(18:24):
and duties as it's this child was being overseen by
defacts itself. Okay, So you can volunteer, you know, you
can donate, give money. A lot of these especially these
private foster care agency throughout the year, they have like
different drives, like they might when it starts getting cold,
they might have a coat drive where they want to
buy coats for the kids. And so you can donate,
(18:47):
you know, donate money to these agencies to help them
care for the kids. You can also do becoming like
a COSTA. A CONSTA stands for quarter pointed special Advocates
in almost every almost every county GOTA, so almost every
county in Georgia has a COSTA office. And I sit
(19:10):
on the board of Rockdale Costa Rockdale County CALTA. And
so what a COSA does is they they're volunteers and
they actually train. They go through a training program where
they learn how to advocate for kids in foster care
in the juvenile court system. So that's one of the
things you can do to work with foster care kids.
Become a COSSA. So there are so there are ways
(19:34):
that you can support without becoming a foster parent.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
And how do we get in touch with you?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Well, first way is always by telephone, okay. So the
number is AERA CO four zero four two nine eight
seven three seven three.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Is that your sale or your office?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
That's my office? Okay, that's my office number. And then
also my whips se is I'll spell it out, it's
w w W Quornock Law. That's c O R N
O g l A W dot com. So W w
w qrdnock law dot com.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
It's my well, that's really good to hear. Now now
this slide back over to adoption. Is it difficult for
minority kids to get adopted?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Uh? Not as like it used to be. Okay, that
that was okay, So because you have right now you
have more uh interracial adoptions for one thing, you you know,
so it's not that uh you know, if if a
minority kid is gonna be strictly adopted by a parent
(20:49):
or parents of their same ethnic group. So that's one
of the reasons it's not as you know, it's not
as difficult as it used to be because you are
having more of these interracial adoptions.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Okay. So that leads me to my next question.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Support services for adoptive, adoptive or adoption or foster care
parents because they're gonna need help, you know, like you said,
you can say this this house is good, then the
child get home and taking up more time than you
expected or not what you expected.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
What are those support services?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Yeah, so children of Falster Care there are support services
for them and the family, and those can include things
like mental health services if that's needed. They if you're
the Falter Care they also have what they call respite services,
(21:43):
and that's where the foster parents might need to take
some time off and they might it might and it
might not. It might just be a day to go
to the spa just to take some time, just to
get some time to themselves or time to go shopping.
And so they will have, like other falster care parents
to look after the falster care children while that parent
(22:06):
takes a day for themselves. So those are things like
that you know there. Of course, they you can have
case workers come in and talk to if you know,
if you're having a problem or something's not quite going
on with the problem of this is more than what
you want to you thought it was gonna be, so
that the state can come in and they can provide
(22:28):
these wrap around services to you as well. So there
is a support system there for foster care parents for
adopt for and that's the same for foster to adopt
because some children, some people go into become foster care
parents because they know they want to adopt. So some
of them come in that they just gonna be falster
(22:48):
care parents, and so some of them go in because
they know they want adopt and they've chosen to adopt
from foster care, so those same services are provided to them,
you know before that adoption is final lot as well,
so those services are available. And then also if you're
if you're adopting through an adoption agency, of course they
(23:08):
provide services. You know, those are things that you're paying for.
They provide services, and then they can provide post adoption
services for you as well when you use adoption ations.
Of the money you pay when you know it's more
expensive to use adoptionation, so the money you paid come
for those types of services as well.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Now talk a buy support.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
What qualifies you to say that you could adopt a child?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Okay? So right, So so with Georgia that right of course,
of course there are legal requirements right there, age requirements,
so in the state of Georgia, you have to be
at least twenty one years old. You can be either Okay,
that's a good thing about Georgia. You can. You can
(23:55):
if you if you a single person you want to adopt,
you can adopt.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
But you got to have a scare you care for
this show.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
So that's what's gonna come in. So so so we'll
talk about what the basics. The basics are you got
to be twenty one years older, twenty one years at
least twenty one years of age. If you're not related
to the child by blood or marriage, you've got to
be at least ten years older than a child that
(24:23):
you're going to adopt. Okay, Okay, Now, if you are married,
both parties have to do the adoption petition. You can't
have one spouse adopted child, you know, and the other
spouse not adopted child if you're married and living together.
But again, like I said, you don't have to be married,
you can be single. Now. Of course, with that, you're
(24:46):
gonna have to go through a vetting system. Just like
you have to go to a vetting system become a
foster care parent, you have to go through a vetting system.
When you're adopted, you're gonna have to do a criminal
background check. They're gonna check to see if you are
on a child abuse regis that, they're gonna check to
see if you're on a sex offender register. They're gonna
come out and visit your home. So they're gonna do
(25:07):
what we it's called a home technical terms home the evaluation.
What most people know it, it's the home study. So
they're coming out to do the home study. Uh, they're
gonna look at how you get your income. Are you
are you able to provide for this?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Right?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
So you got food right? Right? Hello and so and
then you're gonna have to uh, you know, you even
have to show that you're physically able to take care
of the child. You have to you know, if you
haven't been to the doctor in a while, you have
to go get a physical and then the doctor check
you out. So there is a strenuous vetting process because
(25:43):
you know, the term that we use in Georgia is
the best interests of the child. So we you know,
so we're not just gonna, you know, just give anybody
who comes and raise their hands and say I want
to adopt. There you know. There, of course, there is
a betting process because we have to you were, the safety.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Of children twelve months of the year and every it
seems like every month has a specialized day they recognized,
right a cause, Yeah, and November is National Adopt Month?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yes, why is that significance for you?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Okay, So so let's talk about how how this all
got started. So National Adoption Month actually grew out of
National Adoption Day and that was instituted by Dave Thomas,
a lot of us knowing him as the founder of
Wendy and he was of course he was adopted. And
then there was some Fanny May and some other institutions
(26:38):
came together because they wanted to bring awareness to children
in foster care who needed to be adopted. So that
so Adoption Day just turned in. That's because that's in
the month of November, so it's so out of that
grew adoption Month. So and that that's significant for me
because then I talked about false care adoption all year long,
(27:02):
but we want to bring a special tension doing Adoption Month,
and so we try to get a lot of people
on board to talk about adoption during the month of November.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Oh yeah, well you asked me, I responded, because again,
thank you for the education. This show is my main
conversation master class by entrepreneurship, small business, financial literacyre also
social and community up there, and that's what this interview
is about.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
You are an uplifting.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Person, my friend, attorney for Leader Cornock and on one
more time, how can we get in touch with you?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Uh so, my telephone number is Eric code four zero
four two nine eight seven three seveny three. That is
my office number, the law office of Pelica Cornock and
so my website address is www. Coornock Law dot This.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald.
Thanks to our guests and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot
com to listen or register to be a guest on
my show. Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Rashan McDonald host the weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show.
The interviews and information that this show provides off for everyone.
It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
start living your own. If you want to be a
guest on my show, Money Making Conversation Master Class, please
visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click to be
a guest button. If you're an entrepreneur, small business owner,
(00:23):
got a product, an influencer, motivational speaker, I want you
on my show.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now, let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
A managing attorney at the law firm of Falida Cordog,
she is an adoption attorney and foster care advocate. Her
firm specializes in adoption law and family law. After witnessing
unsettling incidents involving children, she believed that she could best
serve the children of Georgia by becoming an attorney. Please
welcome to Money Making Conversations Master Class. Attorney Felita Cordog, How.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
You doing wonderful? Thank you for having me first.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That's a lot to say. What age were you inspired
by this? You know, say that that motivated you to
be an attorney?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I actually at a very young age in my teens. Okay,
I kind of took the senior group though I didn't
start law school until my early thirties.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
They congratulations, atleast you followed your dream. This is your dream,
right dream? Okay? Why was the delay in pursuing law?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Just life, other things happening. I had a child unplanned,
but became blessed in my life, got married, became a homemaker,
and then after all that, I decided it was time
for me to get started doing what I really wanted
to do.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
That's inspirational, don't you believe?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I think it is because a lot of.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
People are sitting at home right now questioning what they
want to do with their lives, and they're, like I said,
pumping the brakes on. What they should be doing is
putting their foot on the gas and planning an option
to be successful. Before we get into your background and
an adoption, law and foster care, being an advocate in
those areas, what enabled you to get in the direction,
(02:03):
get back on the saddle, in the saddle to pursue
this degree in law in your thirties.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, I, like a lot of people, I have a
story and I wanted to turn that story of pain.
It became my passion. When I was very young, my
brother and I we were really small, and my mom
died from domestic violence, so we were pretty much poor.
(02:35):
Friend my mom was deceased and my dad gone to prison,
and I was very fortunate and very blessed that we
didn't have to go into the foster care system because
we had family to take care of us. My mother's
brother became our legal guardian, he and his wife, and
(02:55):
my mother's sister, and my mother parents, my return of
grandparents helped raised us. But as I got older, I
learned that that wasn't the case for everyone. That a
lot of children did end up in foster care because
they didn't have that family or suitable family to take
care of them. And so becoming an adoption attorney and
(03:17):
a foster care advocate it was just my way of
showing my gratitude to God and to my family. And
so I said, well, you know, since everybody isn't able
to have that support system, I can do something to
help bring awareness to these children that are in foster care.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I'm talking to attorney Felita Corna.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes, what is the difference between adoption and foster care.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So of course, adoption is a legal situation where you
become the permanent parents of a child. It's permanent as
opposed to foster care, which is a temporary situation because
when a child comes into foster care, the primary goal
(04:06):
is to reunite that child with his biological affairs. Oh okay,
so that's the goal. So it's permits, it's it can
turn into permiten, that's not the initial goal, okay, but
there are sometimes when that that that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So then sure a child is taken out of a
parent home, maybe prison or physical ailments or drugs, an
environment that's not safe, right, okay, and move to another
environment that they feel will give you a better opportunity
to succeed, right and live a successful way.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
To live successful lives. And and you know, like you say,
the first thing is to ensure their safety, their physical safety, okay,
and also to uh like you said, make sure that
there's someone there to provide for their uh safety. You
know their educational needs, that you know their physical needs.
Make sure that they are taken to the doctors, uh
to get check ups and all those kinds of things. So,
(05:03):
like I said, it's supposed to be permanent, but of
course there are times when a child cannot be reunited
with that biological family and so and when that happens,
then that child who's in foster care becomes eligible for adoption.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Right now, when you look at yourself, you know, I
said you had a support system.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
That enabled you to live a normal life.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
What is the life of a child at an adoption facility.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So of course that that can vary with a child.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And let's just talk about the state of Georgia.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Okay, so where so where they are so falter care.
There's a couple of different ways that a child is
placed in foster care here in Georgia. They can be
placed with a foster family, right okay, Okay, So they
can also be placed.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Which means that that's a family that already has foster.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Kids, has the family that already has fus. It could
be a first time foster okay, it could be a
first time foster parent. It could be a pair of
foster parent who's been doing this for years. It could
be a single individual, and it could be a married couple. Okay, okay,
So they are placed in that in that like a
home environment. Like a you know, with a family in
(06:19):
a single family home, but they can also be placed
in group homes there you know, no sound yeah, no,
so they can you know, they can be placed in
group homes. This this where not all of them are
placed in the home environment, right, so they can't be
placed in group homes as well.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, let's let's talk about the whole situation where you
kind of when you talk about caring for a child
in that permanent environment versus the temporary environment. I know
some friends, I have some friends who have lived successful lives,
but they are very lots of stereotypes about what after child.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Looked like or what they could be.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And you have organizations out there like Big Brothers, Big
Sisters who are set up to be there to mentor
and provide outlets for kids who maybe with single moms
or single single parent households or foster care situations.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Where do you come in?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Okay, So I come in And that's a that's a
great point which you made about the stereotypes of what
children uh in foster care like, so let me can
I address that first?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So? Yeah, so children come in too. First of all,
come into foster care system for all types of reasons.
I've worked with children who parents passed away mom mom
died of an illness. A couple of years later, dad
passed away. Had them where you know, mother passed away,
grandmother became caretaker, then grandmother passed away. Them come in
(08:00):
there where the pair went into the prison system. There
they're going to be there for the next ten, eleven,
twelve years, and there is no other caretaker to care
for them. They and of course some of them are
some of them are physically abused. Some of them have
been physically abused. Some of them have not necessarily been abused,
(08:22):
but they've been elected. Mom is on drugs. She's leaving
the children four and five days at a time by themselves,
and then of course that also leads the education of electors.
Most of the time they're not going into school, and
so sometimes there's no other family member to take them
more there's no suitable family member. You might have somebody
who's willing to take them, might be a wally loving person,
(08:44):
but you know, they they like to smoke marijuana. They
can't pass the drugs, and so even though they're women
to care for these kids, they state is not gonna
look at them as a suitable and as a suitable
person to care of them might be so children. So
that's one of the biggest myths too, is that all
(09:04):
children in foster care have been abused and they all
have emotional problems of mental help. Can we get rid
of that stereotype educating like you're doing now, when we
have people who come in and talk about actually children
and then you know, and not just me as an
adoption attorney, people who work in the foster care system,
(09:27):
case workers, people who have been a foster, foster parent
or adoptive parents. Uh So that's how we do it.
We educate, we talk about it, and we let people
see the face of foster care.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Now, this is very emotional.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
This has to be a very emotional role that you've
taken on, responsibility, you've taken on. How do you handle
that because it's the first of all, the word foster
care and the word adoption doesn't signify happiness. Okay, but
you trying to get these young kids in a happy environment.
(10:03):
I guess that's the end game for your emotion.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Huh right, it's the endgame. It's I look at it
as it's a job I have to do. It's just
when when it's just your your calling, you just got
to do it. And there are some some emotional times
that I have, like you know, when I have uh finalized,
help finalize an adoption and from especially from foster care.
(10:26):
I do all types of adoptions. I do private adoptions,
I do step pair of adoptions, I do grand pair
of adoptions. Uh uh. The only thing I don't do
is international adoptions. I don't do. So I do all
types of adoptions, but I am a foster care advoct
because I love advocating for children of Falster care to
help them find the adoption families because we walk at
(10:48):
the end of the day, we want kids out of
falster care. Absolutely, we don't want them age out of
Falster care.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So that's a whole the matter, Chris, for you before
we're going to further the are if someone takes on
a child in foster care, are they given any funds?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah? Yeah yeah in the state of Georgia, yeah, they
are given stipends to help take care of those kids
in foster care. And a lot of the kids in
falster adoption not not adoption once because once the adoption
is finalized, you stand in the parent's place of a parent,
as if that was your biological child. But while they're
in foster care, they can they can't get subsidies, and
(11:26):
they and most of the kids also qualify for Medicaid
while they're in foster care as well. Okay, cool, so
so but to answer finish your other point about being emotional,
it can be. No. One of the times that I
get most emotional is that when I do an adoption
and there are some falster kids that have come out
of foster care, they found there forever families. That's beautiful,
(11:51):
but it may be that they have still have a
sibling in falster care because usually when children they're part
of a sibling group. If one is in foster care,
nine times out of ten, the other siblings are in
foster care as well. And so it's kind of heartbreaking,
you know, just happy because you know this child has
(12:12):
filed or sometimes sibling groups, they found there forever family,
but they still got a sibling left in foster care.
So that's the part that really gets to me.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
But there are different types of adoption, right, Let's not
let's just say adoption is adoption. Explain us a different
type of adoption. First of all, let me tell everybody
who I'm talking to. I'm talking to a founder and
artistic excuse me, I'm talking to the Felita Cornogue and
your firm deals with adoption agencies and an.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Advocate for foster care.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Foster care, which means that this has been a passion
that changed your life because you could have experienced it.
But you have family members who came to the rescue
because your mom was a victim of domestic vio which
means that she was passed away because of that violence,
and your father went to presson.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
That happened at a.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Very early age, and it is guided you through the
pathway because of the fact that you had a family,
a village, I should say, they came to your rescue,
where if you didn't, you will be having this conversation
about foster care.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
We will be right back with more insights from Money
Making Conversations Master Class. Welcome back to Money Making Conversation
Master Class with me Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
So, yeah, like I say, there are adoptions are usually I mean,
adoptions in itself are usually just happy things. One of
the it's one of the few times that somebody leaves
a law office where everybody's happened, because you know, when
somebody comes to see an attorney's because somebody's done somebody wrong.
So adoptions are just absolutely beautiful, and like I say,
(13:51):
they're you know, they're all types of adoption, just you know,
private adoptions where people, uh, you know, they might be
adopting some child from adoption agency, or they might have
a friend. Right now, I'm working on adoption where the
couple is adopting actually a child, a child of a friend.
(14:13):
It was unwanted pregnancy, and she did not she didn't want,
she didn't want.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
It's an unwanted pregnancy. So she's a friend. Now I
gotta stop right now. Can she come back and certainly
want the child?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Not anymore? Because she has In Georgia and it varies
from state to state, she has surrendered her parental rights.
The biological father has surrendered surrender his parental rights as well.
So in Georgia you have four days to rescind that surrender.
And so after the four days it's up. That's pretty
(14:51):
much it. You can't come back.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Foster care.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That seems to be kind of like they don't know
where they go back to the parents, because they may
want to go back to their parents, so they have
that emotion and the environment that they're in doesn't feel permanent.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Talk about that balance.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, and so you know there's I don't care how
bad the situation is at home. You know, there's just
saying there's just something about that umbilical cord where that
child wants to be tied to that biological family. So
it is a traumatic expirence to be uprooted from that family,
(15:32):
even if that family is not the best place for
that child to be. And then also the one of
the other reasons we want children out of foster care
to hopefully to be reunited with that Like you say,
that's not gonna always happen, So we want to get
children out of foster cares who can't. It can't because
not only that children can go from foster home to
(15:53):
foster home. So it's not like, Okay, you're in this
foster home right now, but you know you're going to
be in this same home from the whole time that
you are in the in the what we call the
custody of the state. And so these children can be
moved from foster home to foster home and then that
(16:13):
you know, and so that's like being uprooted each time
you're rooted. And sometimes issues and mostly it's and it
has a lot of times it helps. It causes children
to not be able bond with people because they don't
want to get you know, attached to this person. Then
(16:35):
I'm going to be moved to somewhere else. So the
child can have these attachment issues as well. So it
can be a very traumatic experience for a child to
be in foster care.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
What if you don't want to be a foster parent,
but you want to support the program, is that is
that an option?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, yeah, that's a great that's a great question because
being a foster parent is not for everybody, but you
can still support. One of the ways you can do
that is like you're doing if you have a radio show,
a podcast, you have a television show, you can bring awareness.
You can have people not just adoption attorneys or social
(17:15):
workers or directors of adoption agents, but you can have
people who've been adopted. You can have a child, a
teenage adult. You can have families who who've adopted child
or families who are foster care parents. So you can
you can bring awareness like you're doing. Also, you can volunteer.
(17:39):
Like one of the things that Georgia has, in addition
to what we know it's Defectsive Department and Family and
Children Services, Georgia also has private foster care agencies as well.
And what is that? So that's an agency. You know,
technically the child is still a ward of the state
because whether it's private foster care of public foster care,
(18:01):
like we know it's defects, but it's just it's an
agency and they do pretty much the same thing as defects.
They oversee the children, they help find foster parents for
these children to go in. It's just that you're not
dealing with defects per se. You're just just dealing with
a private agency. But they still have the same responsibilities
(18:24):
and duties as it's this child was being overseen by
defacts itself. Okay, So you can volunteer, you know, you
can donate, give money. A lot of these especially these
private foster care agency throughout the year, they have like
different drives, like they might when it starts getting cold,
they might have a coat drive where they want to
buy coats for the kids. And so you can donate,
(18:47):
you know, donate money to these agencies to help them
care for the kids. You can also do becoming like
a COSTA. A CONSTA stands for quarter pointed special Advocates
in almost every almost every county GOTA, so almost every
county in Georgia has a COSTA office. And I sit
(19:10):
on the board of Rockdale Costa Rockdale County CALTA. And
so what a COSA does is they they're volunteers and
they actually train. They go through a training program where
they learn how to advocate for kids in foster care
in the juvenile court system. So that's one of the
things you can do to work with foster care kids.
Become a COSSA. So there are so there are ways
(19:34):
that you can support without becoming a foster parent.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
And how do we get in touch with you?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Well, first way is always by telephone, okay. So the
number is AERA CO four zero four two nine eight
seven three seven three.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Is that your sale or your office?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
That's my office? Okay, that's my office number. And then
also my whips se is I'll spell it out, it's
w w W Quornock Law. That's c O R N
O g l A W dot com. So W w
w qrdnock law dot com.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
It's my well, that's really good to hear. Now now
this slide back over to adoption. Is it difficult for
minority kids to get adopted?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Uh? Not as like it used to be. Okay, that
that was okay, So because you have right now you
have more uh interracial adoptions for one thing, you you know,
so it's not that uh you know, if if a
minority kid is gonna be strictly adopted by a parent
(20:49):
or parents of their same ethnic group. So that's one
of the reasons it's not as you know, it's not
as difficult as it used to be because you are
having more of these interracial adoptions.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Okay. So that leads me to my next question.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Support services for adoptive, adoptive or adoption or foster care
parents because they're gonna need help, you know, like you said,
you can say this this house is good, then the
child get home and taking up more time than you
expected or not what you expected.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
What are those support services?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Yeah, so children of Falster Care there are support services
for them and the family, and those can include things
like mental health services if that's needed. They if you're
the Falter Care they also have what they call respite services,
(21:43):
and that's where the foster parents might need to take
some time off and they might it might and it
might not. It might just be a day to go
to the spa just to take some time, just to
get some time to themselves or time to go shopping.
And so they will have, like other falster care parents
to look after the falster care children while that parent
(22:06):
takes a day for themselves. So those are things like
that you know there. Of course, they you can have
case workers come in and talk to if you know,
if you're having a problem or something's not quite going
on with the problem of this is more than what
you want to you thought it was gonna be, so
that the state can come in and they can provide
(22:28):
these wrap around services to you as well. So there
is a support system there for foster care parents for
adopt for and that's the same for foster to adopt
because some children, some people go into become foster care
parents because they know they want to adopt. So some
of them come in that they just gonna be falster
(22:48):
care parents, and so some of them go in because
they know they want adopt and they've chosen to adopt
from foster care, so those same services are provided to them,
you know before that adoption is final lot as well,
so those services are available. And then also if you're
if you're adopting through an adoption agency, of course they
(23:08):
provide services. You know, those are things that you're paying for.
They provide services, and then they can provide post adoption
services for you as well when you use adoption ations.
Of the money you pay when you know it's more
expensive to use adoptionation, so the money you paid come
for those types of services as well.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Now talk a buy support.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
What qualifies you to say that you could adopt a child?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Okay? So right, So so with Georgia that right of course,
of course there are legal requirements right there, age requirements,
so in the state of Georgia, you have to be
at least twenty one years old. You can be either Okay,
that's a good thing about Georgia. You can. You can
(23:55):
if you if you a single person you want to adopt,
you can adopt.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
But you got to have a scare you care for
this show.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
So that's what's gonna come in. So so so we'll
talk about what the basics. The basics are you got
to be twenty one years older, twenty one years at
least twenty one years of age. If you're not related
to the child by blood or marriage, you've got to
be at least ten years older than a child that
(24:23):
you're going to adopt. Okay, Okay, Now, if you are married,
both parties have to do the adoption petition. You can't
have one spouse adopted child, you know, and the other
spouse not adopted child if you're married and living together.
But again, like I said, you don't have to be married,
you can be single. Now. Of course, with that, you're
(24:46):
gonna have to go through a vetting system. Just like
you have to go to a vetting system become a
foster care parent, you have to go through a vetting system.
When you're adopted, you're gonna have to do a criminal
background check. They're gonna check to see if you are
on a child abuse regis that, they're gonna check to
see if you're on a sex offender register. They're gonna
come out and visit your home. So they're gonna do
(25:07):
what we it's called a home technical terms home the evaluation.
What most people know it, it's the home study. So
they're coming out to do the home study. Uh, they're
gonna look at how you get your income. Are you
are you able to provide for this?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Right?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
So you got food right? Right? Hello and so and
then you're gonna have to uh, you know, you even
have to show that you're physically able to take care
of the child. You have to you know, if you
haven't been to the doctor in a while, you have
to go get a physical and then the doctor check
you out. So there is a strenuous vetting process because
(25:43):
you know, the term that we use in Georgia is
the best interests of the child. So we you know,
so we're not just gonna, you know, just give anybody
who comes and raise their hands and say I want
to adopt. There you know. There, of course, there is
a betting process because we have to you were, the safety.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Of children twelve months of the year and every it
seems like every month has a specialized day they recognized,
right a cause, Yeah, and November is National Adopt Month?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yes, why is that significance for you?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Okay, So so let's talk about how how this all
got started. So National Adoption Month actually grew out of
National Adoption Day and that was instituted by Dave Thomas,
a lot of us knowing him as the founder of
Wendy and he was of course he was adopted. And
then there was some Fanny May and some other institutions
(26:38):
came together because they wanted to bring awareness to children
in foster care who needed to be adopted. So that
so Adoption Day just turned in. That's because that's in
the month of November, so it's so out of that
grew adoption Month. So and that that's significant for me
because then I talked about false care adoption all year long,
(27:02):
but we want to bring a special tension doing Adoption Month,
and so we try to get a lot of people
on board to talk about adoption during the month of November.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Oh yeah, well you asked me, I responded, because again,
thank you for the education. This show is my main
conversation master class by entrepreneurship, small business, financial literacyre also
social and community up there, and that's what this interview
is about.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
You are an uplifting.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Person, my friend, attorney for Leader Cornock and on one
more time, how can we get in touch with you?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Uh so, my telephone number is Eric code four zero
four two nine eight seven three seveny three. That is
my office number, the law office of Pelica Cornock and
so my website address is www. Coornock Law dot This.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald.
Thanks to our guests and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot
com to listen or register to be a guest on
my show. Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,
Host
Rushion McDonald
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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.