Adopting in Kansas can be an amazing process that completely changes your life for the better. But if you’re considering adopting a baby, you probably have a lot of questions. This process is complicated, and most folks find it hard to understand. We’re here to help.

This complete guide to adoption in Kansas will give you the information you need to feel confident in your adoption decision and to take your next steps toward a successful placement. If you’d like to learn more about adopting a baby in KS with American Adoptions, you can request free information at any time to get started.  

How to Adopt a Baby in Kansas

If you are considering adopting in Kansas, the process can initially seem daunting. Every adoption journey is unique, and there are so many different legal, emotional and social factors at play. But, when you work with American Adoptions, your adoption specialist will be there to guide you through it all.

Here are the six steps of how to adopt a child in Kansas through American Adoptions:

Step 1: Decide If You’re Fully Committed to Adoption

Adoption isn’t the right pathway for every family. Although the end result is always more than worthwhile, the adoption process is an investment of your time, finances and emotions. Before you begin adopting in Kansas, you’ll need to be sure that this is something that you’re ready to pursue.

Many couples interested in learning how to adopt a child in Kansas have struggled with infertility, miscarriages, or the loss of a child. Before you consider the Kansas adoption process, it’s imperative that you’ve allowed yourself to grieve such a loss.

In early conversations with your American Adoptions specialist, you’ll examine your motivations for adopting a child and your commitment to adoption. If you ultimately decide that adoption is right for you, you’ll need to be able commit fully to adoption as your primary desire — not as a backup plan.

Step 2: Choose How You Want to Adopt a Child in KS

While American Adoptions specializes in the domestic adoption of infants across the U.S., there are many ways to adopt Kansas kids. Common types of adoption include:

Domestic Infant Adoption

Domestic infant adoptions, sometimes also called private adoptions, are adoptions of infants that occur within the U.S. In this type of adoption process, a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy chooses to place her baby with a waiting adoptive couple. Most times, adoptive parents are able to meet their baby and take them home from the hospital. The child’s birth and adoptive parents usually have ongoing contact through an open adoption.

Using a private adoption agency for a domestic adoption in Kansas means that you only have to work with one professional, rather than juggling multiple professionals and handling the entire process yourself. Agencies can provide professional counseling and support to pregnant women, birth parents and adoptive parents that they wouldn’t receive without the help of an agency. Some agencies, like American Adoptions, even provide financial protection for adoptive families in the event of an adoption disruption.

Who Should Choose This Type of Adoption: People looking for greater financial protection, a shorter wait time and the ability to adopt an infant.

Foster Care Adoption

Although the primary goal of the foster care system is to reunite children with their biological families, about 25 percent of kids who are removed from their homes due to things like abuse or neglect will eventually become eligible for adoption from KS foster care. American Adoptions does not provide foster care adoption services, but you can learn more about foster care and adoption in Kansas here.

Who Should Choose This Type of Adoption: People who intend to adopt Kansas kids older than newborns, from 1-year-olds to teens; people who are comfortable adopting children who are older, are part of a sibling group or have certain special needs.

International Adoption

International adoptions can involve children of any age, from toddlers to teenagers. Depending on the country you intend to adopt from, the requirements to adopt and the adoption process can be very different. Regulations may be more lax in some countries, so adoptive families should take care to choose an experienced and reputable international adoption agency to prevent fraud or abuse. International adoptions are not as common today as they were a decade ago; however, with research, international adoption can be an option for your family. American Adoptions does not facilitate international adoptions, but you can read more about international adoption in Kansas here.

Who Should Choose This Type of Adoption: People who wish to adopt a child from another culture or ethnicity and those who are comfortable adopting children older than newborns, as well as people who are prepared to provide their child with lifelong role models of their own race and connections to their cultural and ethnic heritage.

If you want to adopt a child in Kansas, but you haven’t decided exactly how you want to adopt, it’s important to take the time to research all of your options first. The costs, process, requirements and steps involved to adopt Kansas kids will vary depending on which you choose. You can learn more about the requirements to adopt in Kansas here.

Step 3: Choose Your Adoption Professional

Deciding who you want to be your guide throughout the process to adopt KS kids might be the most important decision you make. It’ll impact everything that follows, including the ultimate success of your adoption. Adoption professionals should never be compared solely by price, because they offer vastly different services and levels of safety.

Some families believe that by adopting in Kansas independently (without the use of an agency), they can save some money and circumvent certain requirements. However, independent adoption often leaves families at greater risk for fraud and financial loss, and it gives them no access to professional services that both the adoptive family and the birth family greatly benefit from, such as counseling. It’s highly recommended that all families work with an adoption professional, especially a licensed adoption agency.

The most common types of adoption professionals include:

• National adoption agencies: licensed organizations, often regulated by multiple state licensing authorities, that work with prospective birth and adoptive families across the country. National adoption agencies are regularly reviewed by multiple licensing authorities to ensure they’re always providing the best services. These agencies offer shorter wait times and lower financial risk.

• Local adoption agencies: state-licensed and regulated organizations, usually with a small staff, that serve a limited geographic area. Local and regional agencies typically work only with adoptive families and birth families that reside within the immediate area, which creates longer wait times but may allow for more face-to-face interactions with staff.

• Adoption attorneys and law firms: Kansas attorneys (or groups of attorneys) who are often well-versed in many types of adoption. These professionals typically only provide the legal services needed in adoption, and may work in conjunction with reputable adoption agencies to find adoption opportunities and provide a greater range of services.

• Adoption facilitators: unlicensed, unregulated people or organizations that typically only provide matching services. While some facilitators may seem less expensive and easier to use than the standard Kansas adoption agency, they’re illegal in the state of Kansas and many other states because of their predatory tactics.

• Adoption law centers: organizations similar to adoption facilitators that are owned by attorneys. Unlike adoption law firms and agencies, adoption law center files aren’t regularly reviewed and may not be properly certified or regulated. This often leads to fraud and a lack of protection for both birth and adoptive families, despite the word “law” in the title that provides false reassurances.

American Adoptions is an example of a national adoption agency that offers financial protection and shorter wait times by working with a broader range of potential birth and adoptive families across the U.S. It’s important to do thorough research to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of adoption professionals in greater detail.

Step 4: Complete Preliminary Steps and Requirements

When you work with American Adoptions, the process to adopt Kansas kids involves first determining your preferences through what’s called an Adoption Planning Questionnaire (APQ). This allows your profile to be shown to expectant mothers who have the same kind of dream for their adoption.

During this stage of the process, you’ll also need to complete several other steps to become an active waiting family, including:

• Filling out adoption paperwork

• Completing your Kansas adoption home study

• Taking relevant training courses on becoming an adoptive parent in the state of Kansas

• Creating your adoption profile, which is viewed by pregnant women considering adoption

These steps can feel overwhelming, but remember that your adoption specialist will be there to guide you through it all — and each item you check off the list brings you one step closer to bringing home your baby!

Step 5: Wait for an Adoption Opportunity

Once you complete all the necessary steps and requirements, you will officially be an active family with American Adoptions. This means your profile can be shown to prospective birth mothers, and you could be chosen for an adoption opportunity at any time.

Most hopeful adoptive parents are concerned about how long the KS adoption process will take. In general, 75 percent of our families are placed with a child within 1 to 12 months after becoming active with American Adoptions. Much of that wait time is determined by how open you are to different types of adoption situations.

Once you’ve entered into an adoption opportunity with an expectant mother, you will be able to get to know more about her and her baby through pre-placement phone calls, emails, or whatever forms of contact you all are most comfortable with. In most cases, the prospective birth mother will be pregnant when she chooses you as her baby’s adoptive parents, and you will be notified when she goes into labor and it is time to travel to the hospital.

She’ll have 12 hours following the birth of the baby to physically, mentally and emotionally recover from the delivery before being allowed to sign any adoption consent papers, according to Kansas adoption consent law. If the birth parents sign their consent, the child is placed in your care and they voluntarily terminate their parental rights.

Step 6: Finalize Your Kansas Adoption

If your adoption takes place outside of Kansas, then you’ll need to adhere to the travel guidelines set forth by the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC), which may require you to stay in your baby’s birth state for a few weeks. Your adoption attorney will notify you when you’ve been approved to return to Kansas with your child.

After placement, your Kansas adoption home study professional will return for regular post-placement in-home visits to check up on the child and to see how you’re all adjusting. Once these post-placement requirements have been met, usually around six months after placement, you’ll appear in court with your attorney (and sometimes the birth family) to finalize the adoption. This is where the judge will review and finalize the adoption and grant you full parental rights.

Read more about how to finalize your adoption in Kansas here.

Step 7: Adjust to Post-Placement Life

For the adoptive family, post-placement life is about nurturing your child’s adopted roots as they grow. This can mean reading age-appropriate stories together about adoption, re-telling their story of how they came to your family, maintaining communications with their birth family and more.

It’s always important that your child understands that adoption is a celebrated part of their history and that no questions are off-limits. Maintaining a level of communication with your child’s birth parents is important to help your child develop a strong sense of identity and to give the birth family peace of mind. Exchanging photos, letters, phone calls, emails or arranging occasional visits can all be great ways to stay in touch as your child grows up.

Ready to begin the process to adopt Kansas kids with American Adoptions? Call 1-800-ADOPTION now.

Disclaimer
Information available through these links is the sole property of the companies and organizations listed therein. America Adoptions, Inc. provides this information as a courtesy and is in no way responsible for its content or accuracy.