Are you considering adoption for your child, but don’t fully understand how the adoption process works? The following will walk you through the adoption process with American Adoptions, and will provide you with some valuable supporting articles within each step.

Step 1 – Considering Adoption: Is Adoption Right for You and Your Child?

Many women facing an unplanned pregnancy are unsure if they are ready to parent. Every woman’s situation is different, and only you know the right decision – not the father of the baby, your parents, your sister, or your best friend.

Every year, thousands of women make the adoption decision, primarily because they love their child and want their child to have a life filled with both love and opportunity. Listed below are some of the reasons these women chose adoption for their child:

• Two-parent home, where both parents are involved in the raising of the child.
• Financial stability, so their child can have more opportunities in life.
• Not ready to parent, either because of their age or simply because they wanted to pursue school or other goals before motherhood. Or perhaps they have other children and knew from experience how challenging raising a child can be.
   

Step 2 – Sorting Through Your Emotions and Answering Your Adoption Questions

Very few women in your position feel 100 percent confident about their decision of either parenting or adoption. For those women who choose adoption, this uncertainty begins to fade away as they begin to learn more about the adoption process, and later, get to know the adoptive family.

Many women considering adoption share the following questions, and once they are answered, they feel more confident about their adoption decision:

• Will my child know about his adoption?
• What do adoptive children think about being adopted?
• What will my child think about me for choosing adoption?
• When will I feel better and more confident about my decision?
• Will the adoptive family love my child as much as a biological child?
• If I choose adoption, will I some day regret my decision?
   

Step 3 – How American Adoptions Can Help

No other agency is as passionate about adoption than American Adoptions, and it starts with our founder Scott Mars, who was adopted. Our agency staff has grown to include other adoptees, adoptive families and birth parents, who all have the same collective passion for creating families.

Because we literally “live” adoption, these personal experiences provide us with a better understanding of what each woman considering adoption is experiencing and expecting throughout the adoption process. This has allowed us to offer the following services that are important to prospective birth parents, many of which are unique to our agency:

• Hundreds of Adoptive Families to Choose From – Whatever type of life you envision for your child can become a reality by choosing the perfect family. Having so many families to choose from makes finding the right family much easier.
• 24/7 Support – You can reach an Adoption Specialist at any time of the day – a rarity among most adoption specialists.
• Free Adoption Counseling – Receive counseling prior to, during, and after the adoption.
• Financial Assistance – Although every state’s laws are different, we can typically help with medical and living expenses. Contact American Adoptions to learn more about how we can assist with your adoption expenses.
   

Step 4 – Creating an Adoption Plan

At American Adoptions, your Adoption Specialist will work with you in creating your own personalized adoption plan, which includes the type of adoptive family you want to place with, the amount of contact you want with the family and your child, and how you want the hospital visit to play out, just to name a few.
 

Step 5 – Select the Adoptive Family

American Adoptions is a national agency with hundreds of waiting adoptive families, so your chance of finding a family that completely matches your adoption plan is nearly 100 percent.

We are different from most adoption agencies in that we accept only the best prospective adoptive families in the United States, who…

• Have a strong relationship and are committed to adoption.
• Have the ability to financially provide for a child.
• Are excited to get to know you, based on the amount of contact you are seeking.
• Have been screened through criminal background checks and have been interviewed several times.
• Understand what is important to you in your adoption plan.

When you are ready to select an adoptive family, you will be sent packets of or links to adoptive family profiles and adoptive family video profiles of families who best match your adoption plan.
 

Step 6 – Get to Know the Adoptive Family

Over the past few decades, adoption has become increasingly “open,” in that birth parents have more opportunities than ever to get to know the adoptive family prior to placement, helping you feel more comfortable with your selection.

If you are interested in getting to know the adoptive family, the following are the most common forms of contact:

• Conference Calls
• E-mail Exchange
• Pre-Placement Meetings
• Interaction at the Hospital
   

Step 7 – Delivery/Hospital Plan

Your hospital plan is much like your adoption plan in that you have full control over the hospital stay. Your Adoption Specialist will help guide you in creating your hospital plan, and how the hospital stay will look like.

Once the baby is born, you can then sign the adoption paperwork, making the adoption legal.
 

Step 8 – Post-Placement Contact

Post-placement contact can be as much or as little as you want; again, it all comes down to your adoption plan.

The most common form of post-placement contact is pictures and letters: Over 90 percent of our adoptions see the adoptive family send pictures and letters periodically to the birth mother of her child.

Other forms of contact birth mothers are allowed to request are e-mails, phone calls, and even future visits. There is always a family out there who wants the same adoption relationship that you are seeking.

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If you have any questions about the adoption process, please call an Adoption Specialist at 1-800-ADOPTION or request free adoption information from American Adoptions. In no way does contacting us commit you to an adoption plan; it simply allows us to help provide you some information to help you make a decision in you and your child’s best interest.