Aug

2016

Choosing an Adoption Professional

If you have decided to grow your family through adoption, you have a long and exciting journey ahead of you. This five-part series is meant to give you the basics on the main steps of the process.

To begin this process, you will need to decide who you want to help you through the steps of your adoption. There are multiple types of adoption professionals, including:

National agencies
Local and regional agencies
Adoption facilitators
Adoption attorneys and law centers

To help you decide which of these professionals works best for your situation, ask yourself these questions:

Aug

2016

Ask an Adoption Veteran: Surviving the Wait Time

In Ask an Adoption Veteran, we offer you advice, tips, and insight from people who have been through the adoption process before. Today, we talked with American Adoptions executive director, Shawn Kane, who is an adoptive father himself. We got his input on a challenge that all adoptive parents can understand: making it through the wait time.

Aug

2016

A Birth Mother’s Guide to Manners

I think that most people believe adoption is a great thing in general. They consider it the alternative to abortion, or they believe in personal choices and empowerment. Each of these mind sets seems to be sweet on the surface, but on the root level, they come from places of complete misunderstanding about what it means to be a birth mother. Having an abortion and placing a baby for adoption come from two completely different schools of thought regarding the value of a woman’s body and the value of the life of a child. Being a birth mother, and making that decision to place a child for adoption is about genuinely loving that child. It has nothing to do with anything else except, what I consider, pure love.

Aug

2016

6 Not-So-Helpful Things People Say to Adoptive Parents

Maybe you know someone who has recently adopted a child – maybe it’s even someone close to you. If this is a new experience to you, you may not know much about adoption and how to talk to parents who have adopted. For that reason, it can be easy to accidentally say something that seems positive but can actually be upsetting.

Aug

2016

Q&A with Executive Director Jennifer Kittredge

We want to bring you, our readers, into the day-to-day of our agency by sharing more about the people you get to work with through each phase of the process!

As an Executive Director, Jennifer works closely with our adoptive family and birth parent specialists as well as local attorneys in Florida. She is there to build relationships and help expand American Adoptions of Florida; she has been extensively involved in the work that American Adoptions does, and her knowledge and support help families have a positive and fulfilling adoption experience. Keep reading to learn more about Jennifer and the life of an Executive Director!

Aug

2016

15 Inspirational Adoption Quotes

“Little souls find their way to you whether they’re from your womb or someone else’s”
– Sheryl Crow

“Adoption is a journey of faith, from beginning to end.”
– Johnny Carr

“Families don’t have to match. You don’t have to look like someone else to love them.”
– Leigh Anne Tuohy (adoptive mother portrayed in The Blind Side)

“If you have a heart for adoption, don’t let fear stand in the way”
– Doug Chapman

Aug

2016

ICPC: What it Is and Why You Need to Know

Families who are hoping to adopt – especially if they’re adopting from another state – have undoubtedly heard talk of ICPC. But what exactly is it? Why is it important? And does it apply to your adoption?

Luckily, it’s easy to find out whether you need to worry about ICPC. It will only play a part in your adoption if you are adopting from a state other than the one where you live. If you’re adopting from out-of-state, though, gaining ICPC clearance is a crucial step.

Aug

2016

Adoption Storybooks to Answer All of Your Child’s Questions

When kids have tricky questions, I turn to others for advice, whether that be my friends, family, or the internet. When I search for “how to tell your child about ______,” I am often referred to storybooks. How brilliant! Storybook authors have made their living out of entertaining and speaking to children, so I often turn to them to explain what I cannot.

Adoption is one of those topics that are tricky for kids to understand sometimes. Why am I adopted? What does that mean? Why don’t I look like my parents? Here are some suggestions for books that help explain adoption to kids.

Aug

2016

Adoptee, Simone Biles, Making Waves at the Olympics

As the 2016 Olympics get under way, you’ll probably be hearing a lot about Simone Biles, if you haven’t already. The 19-year old has been making waves in the world of gymnastics and is predicted to win more than one gold medal for the U.S. team. And don’t be surprised if you hear her name in the adoption world, too – when she was five years old, she and her sister were adopted by her grandparents.

Aug

2016

Back in the Classroom: Talking about Adoption at School

As the new school year rolls around, your child will be meeting new teachers, classmates, and friends. For adoptive families, this is a great opportunity think about adoption and how to talk about it with other people.

While you won’t be by your child’s side during the school day, there are plenty of things you can do at home to encourage his or her positive understanding of adoption. By creating a strong foundation of honesty and openness about adoption, you will be able to help your child talk about adoption with people at school.

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