Considering Adoption?

Children of all ages are available for adoption. The majority of those who are interested in adopting are primarily interested in adopting an infant or very young child. There are also school aged children and teenagers waiting for forever homes. Your wait is considerably longer if you are planning on “holding out” for an infant. If you are willing to accept a younger child or infant with special needs, that will shorten the wait also.

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Are you thinking of adopting one child or a sibling group? If you could consider a sibling group of 2 or more children, your chances are better at having a much shorter wait than someone who is wanting to adopt a single child.

Are you willing to adopt a child of a different race? Are you willing to adopt a child who is deaf or blind, or has behavioral issues? The more flexible you can be regarding the child you are willing to consider, the shorter your wait period will be.

There are several kinds of adoptions to consider.

• Domestic adoptions take place within the United States. There are private adoptions where the adopting couple may already be acquainted with the birth Mother or have been referred by a doctor or social worker. There are private agencies who charge a fee for their services. There are children presently in foster care who are waiting to be adopted. The latter mentioned is the least expensive form of adoption. Typically, fees are waived and there may even be adoption assistance available for the family until the child turns age 18.
• International adoptions take place through agencies who are contracted with other agencies in foreign countries. There is generally a large fee for this type of adoption. Usually, one or both parents are required to make the trip in person to pick up the child or children. This incurs an additional expense to be considered.

Once you have made the decision to adopt and whether you wish to adopt domestically or internationally, you need to consider how open or closed you wish the adoption to be. This refers to any sort of ongoing contact with the birth family. Sometimes, in the cases of older children who have an attachment to a parent, parents or even grandparents, it is advisable to continue a reasonable amount of contact. This contact can be strictly by postal mail, email, phone or in person. It can be a combination of all of these things. A lot will also depend on why the child was removed from his/her birth family in the first place. Before any form of contact is established, one needs to be sure it is in the best interest of the child and the adoptive family. If there is a history of drugs and/or violence, ongoing contact may be discouraged, or at most, limited to occasional letters and/or pictures.