Adoption Support At Forever Parents

Adult Adoptee Finds Her Voice (And It’s Beautiful) Written with love and pride by Linny Alright, I admit I probably watched too many Kodak commercials while growing up and even into adulthood. This could be the reason that each time I watch either of my now-adult kids, I envision how they were as infants, toddlers and fast-forward myself into their current ‘look’. I wonder now, did my own mom do anything like that? So when I watch my oldest sing, not only do I love to hear her voice, but also...

Embryo Adoption: Pros And Cons Technology is an amazing thing, isn’t it? It gets more amazing all the time. People with infertility problems have increasingly more options to build their families. One of those ways is through embryo adoption. If you are physically able to carry a child, or are planning to use a surrogate, then adopting embryos might be for you. Couples who have had in vitro fertilization, who have leftover embryos at a cryobank, now can donate them for other...

The Joys and Challenges of Parenting Special Needs...

When I tell people that I have adopted, and that my daughter has special needs, almost always the response is some variation of, “And you didn’t know that before you adopted her?” as if to expect some horror story. But yes of course, we knew fully that she had autism and global delays before we even applied to adopt her. We were emotionally prepared for that. And she is perfect in our eyes. As our daughter...

Life As A Foster Child

I recently asked a dear friend of mine to talk about her experience as a foster child. As you read her story, think about ways in which the system could improve so as to provide stability, security, and loving emotional support throughout a child’s youth. Should the goal be reunification, or should it be, for example, a “least restrictive environment” focused upon the child’s psychological needs,...

Are You Tough Enough To Adopt? (Part 1)

Just in case you’ve not heard or seen, it takes an incredible toughness to go through the adoption process. Our society likes to believe that those who adopt, simply get the idea, gather up a few hundred dollars and whisk out to their local ‘adoption agency’ or ‘birth person on the street’ to ask, ‘Can we have your baby?” If this is what you’ve thought adoption was about, you’re very wrong. The names...

Adoptees: Choices, Not Blankets

It’s presumptuous to make a blanket statement about any group of people. It’s inappropriate to assume that an individual will like or dislike something without first getting his or her input. Then why are blanket statement being made about open vs. closed adoption? The unbiased truth about the matter is, there are voices from all triad sides proclaiming the merits of both, yes both. While this country proudly...

The Adoption Agency/Parent Relationship and its Ef...

Perhaps it was what somebody said before you started the adoption process. Perhaps it was the response to one of your answers. Maybe it was a personal comment that your social worker shared about parenting choices. Or, it could be an agency’s statement of beliefs or policies which put you on the guard. The fact is, our relationships with adoption professionals can shape how our attachment process will be to our future...

Adoption Travel Tips

Traveling To Meet Your Child: Written by Debbie Schwartz, who is a tremendous asset to our adoption forum and is the Program Coordinator for Adoption Connection at Jewish Family Services of Greenwich in Connecticut. Congratulations! After all of your hard work, the time to travel to meet your child is finally here (or almost here). Since you can expect to be overtired, a little anxious, and, quite possibly,...

Adoption Myths

A few months ago, we had a conversation on the adoption forums about what we felt were the most common myths about adoption, specifically about those of us who adopt a child. One of the myths that was posted several times was about adoption being a “last resort” or something we HAVE TO do: “All adoptive parents “have to” adopt because they can’t “have their own” children....

Paying For Adoption Costs

A blog visitor asked: I have been looking into adoption recently, and was discouraged about the costs. I would love any kind of advice, or information about making it more affordable. How can a lower income family afford it? I took the question to our adoption forum members and this is what they suggested: >>>>>>> This is tough. I have to say it seems to be getting harder to do each time we pursue it. Further, adoption costs...

Things To Think About Before Adopting A Sibling Gr...

One of the members at our adoption forums is considering adopting a sibling group of older children. She asked for some advice and I wanted to share her questions, and my answers here for our readers that may have the same questions. What makes that difference between good and horrible? With my kids (half bio. siblings), the difference was what age they were removed from their abuser, how many foster homes they were in and...

Adoption And Race

What role does race play in adoption? Not the race of the child, but rather the race of the person or couple who is adopting. Has your race ever been a factor (not necessarily in a negative way either) in your adoption process? I asked this question at our adoption forums and I’ll open it up to our blog visitors as well. Feel free to answer in a comment here, or on your own blog. If you answer at your blog, let me know...

Adoption: Getting The Word Out

Networking and communication is an important part of getting out the word that you’re looking to adopt. You never know how, or where you’ll connect with someone seeking an adoption plan for their unborn child. We asked our forum members how they go about spreading the word and we’d love to hear from our blog readers as well. Here’s what some of them suggested: We had spread our desire to adopt through...

National Foster Care Month

Did you know that May is National Foster Care Month? Started in 1988, National Foster Care Month aims to recognise the efforts of foster parents across our nation and put focus on the needs of foster children, especially those about to age out of the system. With approximately 12 million foster care alumni and 424,000 children currently in foster care waiting for families, it is hard to ignore the impact of child abuse and...

How To Adopt A Child In The United States

In this article, I’ll list the basic steps on how to adopt a child in the United States, either through a private agency/attorney or from the state foster-to-adopt system. To adopt a baby/child from a private agency or attorney, I would suggest the following: 1. Seriously sit down and create a list of what you’re hoping for. Be honest with yourself. Believe me when I say that there are families for every baby. Don’t...

Adoption Costs In The United States

In a previous article I gave a bird’s-eye view of what infant adoption costs in the United States. With each segment, I wrote that the costs were estimates. Those estimates are highly dependent on where you reside within the USA, what type of infant you may want to adopt, and what type of budget your family is able to afford. Certainly, the best advice in starting out is to really think about the baby you want to adopt....

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