A few of weeks ago, my husband and I decided to move forward with adoption. I thought it might be helpful to provide some advice on next steps for those considering the same.
After the first big step in deciding to adopt, you’ll need to consider the different types of adoption. As I mentioned previously, it’s definitely worth finding your nearest version of Adoptive Parents Committee and attending a conference or meeting. Here you can connect and learn about the different routes to adoption. I also found the How to Adopt A Child Guide on Adoption.com to be a great resource.
This guide is particularly useful in walking you through the difference between ‘agency’ and ‘private’ adoption. Agencies will help you with the whole adoption process, from the legal stuff to finding and matching you with a birth mother. While with private, the person or couple will do a lot of this themselves and hire an attorney for the legal parts. Which process you decide on is a personal choice and worth exploring early on. You’ll also need to look into the funds required for adoption, as it’s definitely an investment of money as well as time.
After a lot of research and discussion, my husband and I have decided to take the private adoption route. We’ll need to hire an attorney who will undertake all the legal paperwork, along with a social worker who will conduct a home study, which includes multiple interviews and a home visit.
Once you’ve decided on either an agency or private adoption, you'll need to collect the required paperwork - an activity that can take some time! Among other things, you’ll need to provide:
- Background checks
- Fingerprints for the Court
- Financial information
- Letters of recommendation from non-family members
- Health insurance information
- Medical backgrounds
While this may seem like a lot, my husband and I see it as a project. Now that we've figured out what we need, we’re working together to collect everything. It’s important to be organized and my advice would be to split up the tasks, otherwise it can get confusing!
So that's where we are right now as we go through the adoption process. We'll continue to keep you updated as we move forward in becoming parents!
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Grace Foxton, YSC’s Northeast Regional Field Associate, has been sharing her adoption journey with us. Be sure to check out her first post Our Decision to Adopt. As a young woman affected by breast cancer, she hopes her experience will help other young women with the logistics of the adoption process.
