When people hear about adoption, their first thought is that of a family adopting a newborn. Or maybe they think of a family flying across the world to bring home a toddler in need of a loving home. What people may not realize is that there are other types of adoption too, such as step-parent adoption, grandparent adoption and adult adoption.
When a woman decides to place her baby for adoption, it’s a huge step — but it’s just the first of many. She will encounter countless important decisions along the way. It can be a daunting process, but a few special American Adoptions staff members are dedicated to helping her decide what’s right for herself and her child.
On average, there are around 100,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, waiting for their permanent home. They vary in age from infant to adult, although the average age is around 8 years old. Some have siblings in the system as well. Most of these children are perfectly healthy kids who just need a loving and supportive adult in their life. When parents are looking to adopt a child, an option available to them is fostering to adopt.
International adoption is the placement of a child from another country with a family from the United States. Countries throughout the world allow children to be adopted into the United States when they can’t be cared for in their home country.
The process of adopting a child from another country varies greatly, as it is governed by the laws of United States (both federal and state law) and the laws of the country where the child was born. However, the United States requires that every intercountry adoption follow certain procedures. Most adoptions include the following steps:
November is National Adoption Month. In Massachusetts in 1976, then-Governor Mike Dukakis proclaimed Adoption Week in his state and the idea grew locally and nationally. Eventually, the entire month of November was declared Adoption Month, due to the number of events being held in most states. Today, many local, state, federal, and private organizations celebrate adoption as a way to positively build families.
One way to do this is through domestic adoption. Domestic adoption is the placement of U.S.-born infants for adoption by their birth parents. The infant’s parents legally consent to the adoption with a family they’ve chosen, usually through an adoption agency or adoption attorney.
When it comes to researching adoption and trying to find out how everything works, it’s hard to distinguish between the good sources and the not so good sources. There are plenty of websites out there ready to dump loads of information on you…but not all …
Over the years, transracial adoption has become increasingly common, largely because people are much more open about their adoption stories today. Still, transracial adoption has its own unique challenges – but so does every type of family. The key is understanding, preparing for, and talking about those challenges.
If you are thinking about transracial adoption, here are some subjects you will need to think about as your child grows.
So you’ve heard of open adoption and you’ve heard of closed adoption, right? But have you heard of semi-open adoption?
Semi-open adoption is a fairly new idea, only having really taken off in the last couple decades. It refers to those adoptions where contact is exchanged between birth mothers and adoptive families, but identifying information remains private. Ok, that makes sense, but how does it work?
Often times, when beginning the adoption process, adoptive families worry about how they could possibly find a birth mother on their own. How will they know where to look? How will they know if the woman they find will be a good fit? How do they find a woman whose hopes for her child are in line with what they can provide?
At American Adoptions we can do all of the legwork for you. How, you ask? Well, we actually do this using a very simple set of questionnaires. Upon joining our agency, you will be asked to complete an Adoption Planning Questionnaire, or APQ, with the help of one of our adoptive family specialists.