Thursday, February 5, 2009; Posted 5.00 pm (CDT)

Senator Kenneth Corn says he put forth Senate Bill 254 after a grandparent in his district wanted to adopt his grandchildren but found the costs a major obstacle.

It took Yvonne Underhill and her husband five years and thousands of dollars to adopt twin grandsons Jason and Jeremy.

"Me as a grandparent and my husband, when we went to school, we never thought we'd be raising our grandchildren. You don't plan ahead for money like that," says Underhill.

Underhill took over the twins' care when they were just six months old, after her son and daughter-in-law no longer could.

"I adopted because they needed a home, and they're my grandbabies," says Underhill.

Underhill knows the costs well. From clothes to glasses to toys, the cost of adoption was almost too much.

"I've already lost my job doing this," says Underhill. "We lost our house."

In order to ease the burden for grandparents like the Underhills across the state, Sen. Kenneth Corn proposed SB 254.

"It allows a grandparent who's going to adopt their grandchildren the opportunity to do so without all those associated costs," says Corn.

It also allows grandparents to not have to do a home study as long as there's no questionable past, which can be a great help since they can start off costing $800.

"They're already in the home, so why does there need to be a home study for something everyone's fine with?" asks Corn.

Jeremy and Jason Underhill's adoption became official just this January, and Underhill's only complaint with the bill is she wishes she'd seen a bill like that a little sooner.

"We'd probably still have our home because of that if they would do that," says Underhill.

SB254 already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. The next stop is the full Senate. Sen. Corn expects a hearing as early as next week.

Sen. Corn plans on setting up criteria to ensure the bill is not used for an adversarial situation.