If you want to adopt a child, you may be looking forward to the life you’ll have when your new child is added to your family. However, you must go through a long legal process before your new child comes home. There will be decisions about whether you are interested in domestic or foreign adoptions.
Most Americans who adopt a child will go through adoption agencies. Although each state has a different list of adoption qualifications, an adoptive parent must typically be over the age of 18 and must show they have adequate income and a suitable place to raise a child. Some states will not allow adoption by someone who has a criminal record. After the initial application for adoption is approved, the agency will send a social worker to your home for an inspection.
If you are already a foster parent, and you learn your foster child’s biological parent is allowing the child to be adopted, you can ask a family attorney about adopting from foster parenting arrangements. A person who wants to learn about adopting a toddler will sometimes face additional requirements. The adoption agency or a family law attorney can answer your questions.
As soon as you started searching for anything related to adoption, you probably realized how complicated it was. No one should sugarcoat this. It’s not easy to adopt, and all the paperwork can be overwhelming. That’s why hiring an adoption attorney is probably the best idea. The adoption agency can help you find one, or you can take that matter into your own hands.
The point is to trust a professional with all the legal filings because this is one of the biggest decisions of your life. You don’t want anything to go wrong. However, you can’t leave everything to this person. Understanding the process yourself is imperative, so you may want to search for an adoption orientation if the agency you talked to never provided one.
You can also keep reading because this article has a breakdown of this confusing process. You’ll find answers to questions like “Can I adopt a child from Turkey?” or “Is Nicaragua adoption easier for Americans?” You could also ask other people, in real life or online, about the pros and cons of adopting a child from Turkey. However, the best way to learn is by starting the process and experiencing it first-hand. Let’s find out more.
there are so many children in the world that are desperately in need of a loving family. Parents who will genuinely love and care for them as if they were their own blood. Adoptions are something to take lightly. It takes a special, kind and caring person to be able to adopt someone but if you think that this is something that you want to do then you are incredibly selfless. There are many adoption programs around the country that help children and getting hooked up with one of them is as easy as simply finding adoption centers. It’s the actual adoption process that is not simple or fast. There are a lot of things that families have to go through in order to qualify to adopt a child. These are the basic steps.
Attend an orientation
The very first think you need to do is contact your local adoption center and let them know you are interested in finding out more about adopting. You will be given a time and place to attend an orientation meeting. This is where you can find out about foster care, what kind of responsibilities are involved in fostering and adopting, a more in depth explanation of the process, what your specific next steps should be and you will be given an opportunity to ask questions.
Request to be contacted
Once you have decided that you definitely want to begin the adoption process, then you can let the adoption center know that you would like to be contacted to begin the process. They will probably ask for information about everyone living in the home and where the home is located as well as some other questions. At no point in the process should you hold back or hide anything. If you feel that something needs to be hidden then maybe adopting a child is not for you. You should always be open and honest.
Complete a home study
A home study is not just one event. It is a series of times where you and a social worker will meet together. You will need to provide a lot of documentation like your birth certificate, marriage license, child abuse clearances as well as character references. Once the social worker has gone through all the documents, they will want to meet at least once at your home in order to ensure that your family is ready to have a child in the home.
Find a child
Once you have been approved and the home study is complete, you can begin your search for a child. The adoption center may have children in their care that you can meet or your social worker will look for a child in other agencies for you. Once you’ve found a child, the agencies will exchange the necessary information and if the child’s social worker likes you and your family, you will be sent the child’s profile.
Meet the child
You will not be the only person selected to be considered. There will be several families considered at the same time. You will be able to meet the child several times over a period of months while the paperwork and agreements are completed.
Bring the child into your home
Once you are selected out of the other families, you will receive a placement date which is when the child comes to live with you. You will need to sign an intent to adopt contract but the adoption will not be finalized yet.
Finalize the adoption
This part happens when you go to the court session where a judge grants the finalization of the entire adoption process. An amended birth certificate will show your names as the parents as well as a certificate of adoption.
While it all might sound simple and straight forward there is a lot of waiting that is involved. You may get as far as being selected as one of the several families and will even meet the child and then not be the final family chosen and have to start all over again. It’s a lot of paperwork, patience and sometimes heart ache but when it’s all done and over with, it’s worth it. You will look back and be so glad that you had the heart to keep going.
