The list of documents looks daunting; just take them one by one. You can make the process easier if you get the correct documents on the first try—nothing is more frustrating than having your home study held up because you have to chase yet another bit of paper.
Penguin befriends a pinecone, but realizes it can’t thrive in the cold, so he takes it to a faraway forest.
If you have a medical, financial, or criminal record that you fear might result in an unfavorable home study, don't wait to mention it.
Your home study will not only assess your ability to parent a child through adoption, it will also help you understand more about adoption and parenting.
A home study is a document that says you can be a parent. What does that mean?
I sat at the kitchen table, holding the phone receiver as I waited for Nancy, our social worker at the adoption agency, to come on the line. How could I tell her that I had just been diagnosed with bipolar disorder?
No matter what kind of adoption you’re doing, it’s smart to enlist a pediatrician before you make any other decisions. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a section for adoption medicine, with a directory of members.
Before you choose your adoption path, talk to an adoption pediatrician about risk factors and complications related to prenatal drug and alcohol use.
Experts in international adoption medicine stress that the country of origin is less important than the individual child’s circumstances. Children with disastrous, life-long problems can be born to healthy couples in wealthy countries; perfectly healthy babies can emerge from chaos and poverty.
All parents, biological or adoptive, want perfect children, and all realistic parents understand that there is some risk in having children by any method.
Some adoptions don't end well. Were we wrong to be afraid?
A brief review of Red Thread Sisters, an engaging novel your middle-schooler will enjoy.
Child psychiatrists believe that children lay down emotional patterns, beginning in infancy. A child who does not experience consistent affection may never learn to feel or express affection for others. This syndrome is called “attachment disorder” or “reactive attachment disorder” (RAD).
All adoptions, wherever from and via whatever method, include a home study, the process where a social worker checks that you are eligible to adopt. After that, budget items vary.
There are enough sources of financial support for adoption so that you can, in all likelihood, get your costs down to a manageable figure.
Well, it varies! As a general rule, foster-care adoptions cost less than private or international adoptions. Learn the hidden costs and types of payments that are illegal.
If your adoption drags on and on, or if you keep getting birth mother matches or child referrals that don’t come close to your requirements, you’ll have to think about making a change.
LGBT prospective parents may face extra hurdles because of a state’s adoption law, an agency’s philosophy, or the attitude of an individual social worker.
Judy Sierra's fun and heartwarming book is perfect for bridging the topic of adoption with young children.
“Niceness is not typically a concern when you are looking for an attorney to litigate a case, but in an adoption, when the attorney is going to have direct contact with the birth parents, you need your legal representative to be a likeable person!”
