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Routes to Adoption
By Rochelle Caviness
Adopting a child is never an easy decision, nor is the adoption process easy. There are many routes to adoption. Some people begin as foster parents and later go on to adopt their foster child, while others adopt a child sight unseen.
Adoption can be a long and costly procedure. Time wise, adoptions can take anywhere from a matter of months to five or more years.
Using an agency
Adoption agencies come in two varieties, private and public. When selecting a private agency, make sure that it is licensed by the state or states in which it operates. Public agencies are usually run by state welfare or social services departments and handle primarily domestic adoptions of special needs children.
Private agencies are supported solely from private funding sources and the fees they charge, and these fees can be quite high. Fees for private agency adoptions typically run from approximately $8,000 - $30,000 for a domestic adoption. For foreign adoptions, the fees can far exceed the $30,000 mark.
Public agencies provide their services at low or no cost to the prospective parent. When fees are involved, there are often mechanisms by which those fees will be subsidized. Public agencies have as their main concern placing special need children in supportive families. While many of these special needs children are mentally or physically disabled, a large percentage are merely older children, siblings which require placement in with the same family, or biracial children.
Beginning as a foster parent
The goal of foster parenting is not adoption, but rather to provide a safe and nurturing environment for a child while their birth parents work out any problems that they might be having, after which the child will be returned to the birth parents. Occasionally, foster children become available for adoption.
While foster parenting is not a direct method of adopting a child, it does give you experience in learning how to integrate a new child into your household. It also offers you a chance to work with the state agency and can help you obtain priority when it comes to adopting the child in your care, if they become available for adoption.
Using a Lawyer
Independent adoptions are those conducted between the birth mother and the prospective adoptive parents. These adoptions are handled by an adoption attorney whose job it is to handle the legal issues and to insure that the adoption complies with all the adoption laws in the state in which it is carried out. Independent adoptions are not legal in all states.
Occasionally, a birth mother will change her mind about relinquishing her child after it is born. To protect yourself in such a circumstance, you may want to purchase an insurance policy that will reimburse you for your expenses if the birth mother does not go through with the adoption.
Open Adoptions
An open adoption is one in which the birth mother and the adoptive parents are known to each other. In such cases, the birth mother may have a long-term association with her child that can include scheduled visitations and telephone and mail contact between the child and the mother.
The benefits of open adoption are that, as adoptive parents, you know who the birth mother is and what her health and circumstances are. In addition, the child doesn't grow up with the mystery of 'who they are' hanging over their head. For the birth mother, she gets to have a say in who adopts her child and she gets to have contact with the child.
Closed Adoptions
Until recently, closed adoptions were the norm. In such cases, the adoptive parents had no idea who the birth mother was, or what her circumstances were. In addition, if the child later wanted to find out who her birth mother was, it was almost impossible because the adoption files were sealed and such information was not given out.
International Adoptions
When adopting a foreign child, in addition to the run of the mill avalanche of paper work that is associated with a domestic adoption, you also are faced with a whole host of additional complications. These can include immigration laws - of both countries involved, additional fees for the agency or lawyers handling the adoption as well as additional transportation, legal, and medical expenses. There can also be additional complications if you do not speak the language of your new child.
Always consult your doctor for medical advice.
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