Answers to your parenting questions.
Crazy or Gutsy? Parenting in Your Forties and Fifties
Older, wiser — and adopting more than ever.
“Just Adopt”
When I was struggling with infertility, friends and family mistakenly said insensitive things. Now that I’m an adoptive parent, I’m more careful with my words.
“Great Non-Expectations”
The intense motherly love that washed over me after Jack’s adoption was a shock to everyone — especially me.
Ask AF: Adopting an Acquaintance’s Baby
Answers to your parenting questions.
“I Needed This All Along”
Five years on: We have been “trying” for three years, and now are deep into the medical crapshoot of infertility treatment. Soon it becomes clear that we will never have our own biological children.
Deciding to Adopt After Infertility
There is only one good reason to adopt, just as there is only one good reason to bear a child: Your desire to be a parent is greater than your fear.
The Basics: Which Type of Adoption Is Right for You?
Different agencies and attorneys specialize in different kinds of adoption, so you need to think about what kind of child—what age, what race—is right for you before you make any kind of commitment to an agency or attorney. You may also end up using a combination of partners, or you may choose to work independently.
7 Common Questions When You’re Deciding to Adopt
When you bear or raise children, you step into the unknown. If you adopt, you take a step further. You can’t predict what baby would come from your own genetic mix, but you might recognize traits as the child grows up: “He’s got grandpa’s ears.” With an adopted child, there’s an element of mystery: “Where did that nose come from?”
The Top Ten Myths (and Facts) About Adoption
If you’re considering adoption and hearing falsehoods for family and friends, read on to get real adoption facts to debunk the fiction.
International vs. Domestic vs. Foster Adoption – Fast Facts
Is adoption for you? Explore your options here.
“Our Relationship with Our Child’s Birth Mother”
Getting to know our daughter’s birth mother was a tremendous blessing.
Interviewing Potential Birth Mothers
What to ask — and what not to ask — a potential birth mother in your first encounter.
How We Decided
No one adoption route is right for every family. AF readers describe the thinking that went behind the route they chose.
“What We Couldn’t Learn Before Adopting”
My wife and I learned a lot from reading, but there were some things not discussed in the books we read. So from one father to another, from one parent to another, here’s my notebook of thoughts after our adoption.
How We Afforded Our Adoption
We asked our reader panel: How did you finance your adoption? Share any cost-cutting or creative financing strategies with other readers.
A Child to Love
The path to adopting a child for many involves becoming a foster parent first. Learn about the risks, rewards, and responsibilities of caring for children in the U.S. foster care system.
“Choosing Which Country to Adopt From (Twice)”
Growing up in a mostly white, Midwestern town in the late 1970s and early 80s, watching reruns of The Donna Reed Show and Leave It to Beaver, I figured I would finish school, find a girl to marry, buy a little house with a white picket fence, and have a couple of kids who looked like me. This was the middle-class American dream, and at the time it never occurred to me that life would turn out any other way.
Parent-To-Parent: Sharing Our News
On our Facebook page we asked readers: After you decided to adopt, who was the first person you told? What did he or she say? Here are some of your responses.
“Our First Choice”
I always knew I wanted to grow my family through adoption.