How The Adoption Process Works
Adoption is a life-changing journey for everyone involved:
- Prospective birth mothers can respond to their unplanned pregnancy in a way that gives them a better future and gives their baby a great family.
- Hopeful adoptive parents can see their dreams fulfilled and give a child a loving family.
- Adopted children can get the love, care and safety they deserve as they grow, thrive and become the person they are meant to be.
Here’s how the adoption process works, including where you can find the help you need and how to take your next steps.
Step 1: Choose Adoption. How Can You Know it’s Right for You?
How do you know that the domestic adoption process is the right choice in your situation? It is helpful to know the benefits a child gains through adoption. Here’s what several adoptees had to say about adoption:
- “Without adoption, my mom and dad would not have been able to share their love, share their life, and give someone the life that I had. Because of adoption, my life was filled with love and opportunity.” — Watch Scott’s story here.
- “My parents told our adoption stories from the time my brother and I were infants, so it was a positive thing. They talked about our birth parents with love. All of our family members welcomed everything about adoption.” — Read Diana’s story here.
- “Within days of my birth I was given the most awesome gift: my family. My birth mother decided that placing me for adoption was the best choice for both of us. I still can’t imagine all she went through to come to that selfless decision.” — Read Jennifer’s story here.
Many women are afraid that choosing the child adoption process is “giving up” their baby. But, as you can see, adopted children realize their birth parents didn’t give up. They gave their child a wonderful life.
Because of adoption, a child is given two loving parents who, without adoption, would forever remain a couple, having so much love to give and no child to share it with. Adoption truly is a gift to everyone.
When you’re a family considering the newborn adoption process, you can not only give this baby the loving family and wonderful life that they deserve, but also fulfill your dreams of becoming a parent.
If that sounds right to you, then you’re ready for step two.
Step 2: Pick an Agency and Create a Plan [How to Find the Best Agency]
Your agency is your best friend. They provide support, encouragement, and guidance when you are a woman considering adoption or a hopeful adoptive parent.
There are so many different agencies, which you may have already found out from searching around Google. How do you know which one to pick?
Everyone is different, so only you can know which agency is best for you. But, there are a few things that all of the best agencies have:
- Experienced Staff: The adoption process can be complicated, which is why the best agencies are staffed by people who have been providing the required services for years. That’s what you want in an agency. An extra bonus: Ask if the agency has personal experience with adoption. Are there adoptive families, birth parents and adoptees on staff? The best adoption agencies have personal experience on all sides of the adoption triad.
- Consistent Placements: What do the agency’s year-over-year placement numbers look like? This may seem like an odd thing to ask, but here’s the truth: Numbers that vary wildly indicate instability, which could mean losing support in the middle of the process if your agency experiences changes or closes down. That’s why larger, national adoption agencies are the preferred option for a lot of people.
- 24/7 Support: How often do your most pressing needs come up within the typical 9-5? Not often. That’s how it is with the adoption process. And that’s why any agency you work with should offer 24/7 support.
These qualities will make your adoption process smoother, more secure, and more likely to succeed. If that sounds like something you want, you can click here to contact us today to be connected with a helpful adoption agency.
Step 3: Find an Adoption Opportunity. How Can You Find the Best Match?
“I know my son has a huge family who loves and cares so much for him. I am forever thankful for that.” — Candice
This is what one birth mother told her adoption agency when she reflects on her adoption process.
When you work with a good agency, all adoptive families are thoroughly screened, and all prospective birth parents are given the resources they need in order to choose the perfect family for their baby. You can click here to look at the profiles of some families who are waiting to adopt a baby.
How does the adoption process work for finding the right opportunity? An adoption specialist will help the prospective birth parents look through adoptive family profiles, and the birth parents can look through as many as they want until they find the right parents.
Adoptive families make these profiles with the help of their agency. This is another area where choosing the best agency can make a big difference, which is why many families go with a larger, established national adoption agency:
- Larger agencies work with more families and more prospective birth parents at once. This gives prospective birth parents a better chance of finding the right family. With more options, they have a better chance of finding the perfect fit, which benefits the adoptive family, too. With adoption, finding the right family and right birth parents makes all the difference in the world.
- National adoption agencies experience less staff turnover, which gives adoptive families and prospective birth mothers consistent support while they are waiting for the right opportunity.
- Some national adoption agencies have staff members with personal adoption experience, which means they better understand what everyone is going through and how to provide the services necessary for a happy, healthy adoption process.
Want to look at some profiles now? Click here to see some potential adoptive families.
Step 4: Prepare for Placement [Getting to Know Each Other]
It’s completely normal to be nervous about adoption. One thing that helps a lot of birth parents and adoptive parents is the ability to get to know each other during pre-placement contact.
“I feel like we’re closer, whereas some birth parents wait until the last minute and they don’t have the opportunity to get to know their family,” Caitlin, a birth mother, said about getting to know the adoptive parents. “I got to really get to know them, and not just off of paper.”
Prospective birth parents get to choose the level of openness when they create their adoption plan. It’s totally up to you and what you feel most comfortable with.
Adoptive families will work with a specialist to decide what level of openness they would prefer, and their profile will only be shown to prospective birth parents who want the same type of communication.
Getting to know each other during pre-placement contact sets the foundation for a successful open adoption relationship. This is an important part of what is involved in the adoption process, and it’s one area where a good agency can provide a lot of guidance.
Step 5: Complete Placement According to the Hospital Plan
The hospital stay can be one of the most stressful parts of unplanned pregnancy. But during the American adoption process, prospective birth parents will have all the support they could ask for to make labor and delivery as smooth as possible.
Prospective birth mothers can create a hospital plan with the help of their adoption agency, which includes choosing the hospital they like best. All of your medical costs will be covered by adoption financial assistance, so you can focus on what matters most.
This hospital plan is helpful for the adoptive parents, too. It gives structure to one of the most important moments of your life: meeting the baby for the first time. Depending on the prospective birth mother’s hospital plan, the adoptive family may spend time in the delivery room with her, or they may wait in the lobby to be placed with the baby.
Your adoption specialist will be there to guide everyone through this life-changing moment in the adoption process.
Step 6: A Bright Future is Waiting
Adoption isn’t “goodbye.” Most adoptions are at least semi-open, which means there can be an ongoing relationship with the birth parent, baby and adoptive parents.
After placement, life moves forward with the knowledge that a child is safe, loved and living in a home that will give them so many opportunities to thrive. While completing the adoption process is rarely easy, it is always worth it.
For families, the last step of the private adoption process is finalization. During this step, you’ll appear before a judge (in person or virtually), who will issue your final decree of adoption. That makes the child adoption process officially complete.
When the adoption process ends, the journey is just beginning.
THE BIGGEST BENEFIT OF ADOPTION
The child adoption process is a chance to do something amazing. It’s a brave step to take toward providing a child with the best future.
There are plenty of benefits of adoption for women considering adoption and for hopeful adoptive parents. But, at the end of the day, the thing that brings you together is that you both want this child to have an amazing, fulfilling, abundant life.
That’s the biggest benefit of adoption — the knowledge that this child will be loved, cherished and protected. That they will have the life they deserve.
“Even though adoption was the hardest decision I will ever make in my life, American Adoptions also made it the best decision I’ve ever made in my life,” Erika, a birth mother, said about the adoption process with her agency.
Ready to learn more and get started? Let’s talk. Contact us today, and we’ll connect you with a trustworthy adoption agency.