For many prospective adoptive parents, “the choice” of where and how to adopt is the most difficult part. Answers to three common questions when deciding if transracial adoption is right for your family.
Adopting Internationally: The Basics
If this is your first adoption, choose a country with a long-standing, stable adoption process, and work with an agency licensed by the U.S. and by the sending country. International adoption can be complicated enough; don’t add extra uncertainty to the process.
The Home Study in Seven Steps
There’s no set format for home studies, but most include the following seven steps.
Should I Adopt a Child with “Special Needs”?
Peg Studaker, supervisor of the Waiting International Child Program at Children’s Home Society and Family Services, in Minnesota, says: “Parenting children with special needs should be a family’s first choice. Adopting a special-needs child should never be a second choice because the family could not get the child they really wanted to parent.”
Choosing Which Age Group to Adopt
For lots of adoptive parents, the hardest part of the process is the “choice” — particularly what age they should adopt.
Selecting Gender in Adoption
What prospective adoptive parents need to know if having a boy or a girl is important to them.
Finding an Expectant Mother Match
How you go about searching for your child’s birth mother will depend on what you feel comfortable with.
Tips for Creating Your Profile from Birth Mothers
When creating your family profile, be authentic.
Adopting from the United States
Basic facts about domestic adoption.
Deciding to Adopt After Infertility
There is only one good reason to adopt, just as there is only one good reason to bear a child: Your desire to be a parent is greater than your fear.
Deciding to Adopt with Reluctant Relatives
Many, many couples are deeply divided about adoption. Marriage counselors and social workers say the reluctant partner is usually the male, whose concerns may range from simple ambivalence about parenthood in general to specific concerns about loving a child who’s not related by blood.
The Basics: Which Type of Adoption Is Right for You?
Different agencies and attorneys specialize in different kinds of adoption, so you need to think about what kind of child—what age, what race—is right for you before you make any kind of commitment to an agency or attorney. You may also end up using a combination of partners, or you may choose to work independently.
7 Common Questions When You’re Deciding to Adopt
When you bear or raise children, you step into the unknown. If you adopt, you take a step further. You can’t predict what baby would come from your own genetic mix, but you might recognize traits as the child grows up: “He’s got grandpa’s ears.” With an adopted child, there’s an element of mystery: “Where did that nose come from?”
The Top Ten Myths (and Facts) About Adoption
If you’re considering adoption and hearing falsehoods for family and friends, read on to get real adoption facts to debunk the fiction.