Four Pillars of a Successful Adoption
Every family begins the adoption journey with the same dream: to welcome a child into their home. But far too often, families face long waits, surprise costs, or even failed placements because the professional they chose wasn’t prepared to guide them.
After more than 13,000 adoptions in 30+ years, we know what separates successful journeys from heartbreaking setbacks. It comes down to four keys — the pillars every family should look for when choosing an adoption professional.
Your adoption success boils down to 4 crucial ingredients:
When an agency doesn't follow these ingredients for success, it results in:
- More failed adoptions.
- Lost Time.
- Lost Money.
Promises vary, wait times and costs don’t align, and it’s hard to know who to trust.
That’s why we created this guide—to help you better understand what's required for a successful adoption.
With over 13,000 successful adoptions and more than 100 licensed professionals—social workers, counselors, and legal experts—we’ve seen what works and what fails. These four pillars are the foundation of our process for helping families adopt and the clearest way for families to identify successful agencies from risky ones.
1: Finding the Expectant Mother
Marketing Outreach Isn’t Optional—It’s Everything
95% of expectant mothers begin their journey online. So if your agency isn’t showing up on Google and social media, you’re invisible.
That means you face:
Without marketing, agencies fail to reach enough expectant mothers, limiting both diversity and opportunities for families seeking to adopt.
Expectant mothers envision their child's ideal future family, making the volume of connections crucial. To build the family you deserve, your agency must reach many mothers, not just a few.
The traffic data below reveals a stark reality: The drop-off is significant even within many of the top web traffic agencies.
The lower the traffic, the less likely an agency is to connect with enough expectant women to provide meaningful adoption opportunities for waiting families.
Main things to consider
- If an agency has low web traffic combined with a high upfront fee, what is that fee going toward? If it's not marketing, where is the value?
- If an agency has fewer than 5000 monthly visitors, it shouldn't charge an upfront fee.
This isn’t just about credentials. It’s about expertise. Most other agencies lack expertise in adoption placement and case management of complex situations, including navigating the legalities of cross-state adoptions. Here’s how we like to explain it: If your spouse needed important surgery, would you ever choose an unlicensed doctor, or someone who only performs a few surgeries a year? Having a licensed, highly experienced professional with expertise is critical to your safety and success. Adoption is no different. Experience matters. Here are 3 minimum standards when looking for an agency with experienced staff. 80% of adoptions happen across state lines. Meaning the birth mother is from a different state than the adoptive family. Navigating adoption laws across state lines can be complex. Inexperience here = mistakes, and actually very avoidable ones. The ADOPT Act, a proposed federal law, will change the adoption landscape, making some professionals unable to provide the services they are providing today. Many organizations currently working in all 50 states may suddenly be limited to just a few, causing delays, disruptions, and closures. Why is adoption law important? Some organizations are not licensed in the state where the birth mom resides, and this can lead to legal complications, resulting in failed adoptions and frustrated families. Click here to learn more about the changing adoption laws. What does this mean for you? Make sure you join an agency that the new ADOPT Act won't negatively impact; otherwise, you could add years to your wait. In this image, you can see how compliance enforcement will impact agencies, including those with limited licensure. So, if you didn’t know about this potential new law, what would happen to your adoption chances if you joined their agency? What to Ask:2: Licensed Staff & Emotional Expertise
Support That Protects You—and Her
3: Navigating Adoption Laws
What's legal today in adoption may not be legal tomorrow.
4: Avoiding Hidden Costs of Adoption
The reality for families is that with successful adoption agencies, the typical cost of adoption ranges from $30,000 to $85,000.
If an agency is estimating the lowest end of that or below, they are cutting out one or all of:
- Experience and expertise.
- Marketing and outreach.
- Costs associated with failed placements ranging from $10,000 - $40,000.
For families, the worry becomes how many losses can you incur before it affects your ability to adopt at all.
That’s why we built our Limited Risk Program. Our fees are higher but we protect you. In other words, we absorb loses on adoption costs when an adoption doesn’t work out. We cover disrupted adoption costs—birth parent expenses, medical, agency fees and most legal fees. So you’re not taking financial impact after impact.
American Adoptions' fees are higher because we absorb most of the costs of adoptions that don't work out. See the image below.
To learn more, read about our Limited Risk Program here.
Take the Next Step With Confidence
Adoption shouldn’t be a gamble. With the right professional, it can be a safe, supported journey to parenthood.
Contact us today to learn how our proven process and four keys can guide your family to the adoption you’ve been waiting for.
More Resources for a Safe and Successful Adoption
To help prepare you, we encourage you to read the following resources to better understand what a successful and safe adoption requires.
Disclaimer
Information available through these links is the sole property of the companies and organizations listed therein. American Adoptions provides this information as a courtesy and is in no way responsible for its content or accuracy.
