Baby Adoptions
When considering adopting a child, many adoptive parents hope to adopt a newborn or infant. They want to be involved in the child's life from birth and not miss a single day of his or her life. Waiting to adopt an infant can often take years, but the wait is quickly forgotten once the adoptive parents are holding their new child in their arms.
The path to adopting an infant can vary from adoption to adoption. Some adoptive families have successfully adopted thru an adoption agency, while other adoptive families have been happily matched with infants thru independent intermediaries. Some have chosen to adopt a child born in the US, while others have decided to adopt a child born in another country.
Domestic Adoptions - Infants Born in the US
Many adoptive parents choose to pursue a domestic (US born baby) and hope to adopt a child with a background similar to their own. In the US, this demand is mostly for Cau casian infants. Most adoptions of these infants are handled by adoption agencies or arranged thru independent methods, as they are generally not available thru public agencies.
It is difficult to give a time frame to waiting adoptive families because the choice is often up to the birth mother, it is not a "first come, first placed" type of process. An adoption agency will usually have a group of waiting families that the birth mother can choose from. When a birth mother works with an agency, she will review the files of the families wanting to adopt and select the family she wants to adopt her baby when it is born. This is true in most independent adoptions as well, that the birth mother chooses the family she wants to adopt her child.
Most infant adoptions are possible because the birth mother has decided to place her child up for adoption while pregnant. She decides on whether she will work with an adoption agency, an attorney, or other independent paths. After adoptive parents are matched with a child, adoption agreements are worked out. The type of adoption, whether it is a confidential or open adoption, will determine the amount of interaction between the birth parents and adoptive parents. In most cases, however, in both confidential and open adoptions, the adoptive parents cover the medical expenses and living expenses of the birth mother during her pregnancy. Other expenses necessary in an infant adoption include costs associated with birth parent counseling, adoptive parents orientation, home studies, adoption and parenting sessions, court reports, and travel.
Usually the transfer of the child is made within days of the birth, but all the specifics should be worked out in the adoption agreement. Sometimes the birth mother wants time to say good-bye and wants to spend the time in the hospital with the baby. The type of transfer is also determined on whether or not the adoption is confidential or open. On confidential adoptions, the infant is transferred to the adoptive family thru an attorney or adoption counselor. In open adoptions, the transfer may occur from birth family to adoptive family directly. Some families choosing open adoption have even chosen to signify the adoption at a formal ceremony. Once the baby is in the adoptive home, the post-placement report must be completed by social services and the attorney will file the legal papers necessary to finalize the adoption. This process can take several months to be completed.
Because so few infants are available, adoption agencies usually have very specific eligibility requirements. These requirements vary from agency to agency, but may cover marital status, years of marriage, age, employment, availability of a stay-at-home parent, health, ability to have own children, or if there are other children (natural or adopted) in the family. When consulting an adoption agency, these are all issues that will be addressed. While adoption agencies may seem bureaucratic, the benefit of going thru an adoption agency is that they handle all aspects of the adoption (which can be complex and overwhelming), as well as the fact that they are licensed by the state which encourages fair treatment and reputable business practices.
It is often because of the rigid requirements of adoption agencies and the potential amount of time that the adoptive parents will have to wait, that some adoptive parents seek an infant thru other paths. Depending on the laws of the state in which they reside, some adoptive parents have found a child thru an adoption attorney or with the help of an adoption facilitator or other adoption intermediary. However, there can also be more emotional and financial risk for adoptive families who choose to work with intermediaries, as they are often unlicensed and outside of state oversight.
International Adoptions - Infants Born Outside the US
Many adoptive families who want to adopt an infant have turned to international agencies in the hope that the wait will not be as long if they adopt an infant from another country. Generally, the children available thru international adoption agencies and orphanages in other countries are older infants or toddlers. Because it takes time to match a family with a child, and may require the parents to travel to the infant's country to comply with immigration laws of both countries, it may not be until the infant is about four months of age or older that the adoption occurs. In some instances, however, it has been possible for an attorney in the infant's country to work out an agreement ahead of time, so that the infant was only a few days old before it was placed with the adoptive family, but this is very rare. The waiting period for an international adoption may still take up to a year, but the process is often more predictable than for a domestic adoption. The cost of international adoptions is similar to those for domestic adoptions.