Adoptive Family Articles
How We Screen Pregnant Birth ParentsA sense of total security is often one of the main reasons why hopeful adoptive families work with a trusted adoption agency during the adoption process.
The Faces of Birth ParentsIt’s no wonder that images of birth mothers tend to parallel the stereotypes of these women portrayed in the media: an uneducated 17-year-old drug addict deserted by her family, forced to “give up” her baby to an adoption agency in exchange for rent and money.
The evolution of adoption has been monumental in 20 years and even more dramatic in the past decade. Long, long gone are the days when women facing unplanned pregnancies “gave up” babies to adoption agencies as a “last resort.”
Placing a baby for adoption, rather than ending a life or choosing to parent despite an inability to fulfill a child’s needs, is an extraordinary expression of selflessness, requiring a complex decision-making ability concluding adoption to be a win-win-win choice.
Women who choose adoption not only choose to give the miracle of life to a new human being, but also to give the gift of parenthood to families who want nothing more in the world.
Doesn’t sound much like the characteristics of an uneducated girl with nothing left but despair and addiction?
That’s because birth mothers are far from embodying this one image. Rather, birth mothers encompass virtually every age group, ethnicity, marital status, profession and sexual orientation.
Do Birth Parents Change Their Minds?One of the many fears some couples have when considering adoption is that the birth parents will change their minds and back out of the adoption. This fear is often perpetuated by television movies and dramatized news stories, further heightening this fear that can often lead couples away from the adoption decision.
In domestic adoption, there is always a chance that the birth parents could change their minds. However, adoption law is clear; once the adoption is finalized, the child is recognized as the adoptive family's child by law. Although there have been a few highly publicized adoption cases in which the adoption was overturned after being finalized, the truth is that these cases were fraught with errors and legal missteps, making them invalid. These cases are rare and are exceptions. In the majority of adoptions finalized today, the birth parents have no rights to the child once the adoption is finalized.
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