Adoption & Your Family

Adopting a child is not an easy process. It's ironic, especially considering how many needy children there are in the world! However, if you want to adopt it may take several years, that is if you qualify. The choices are private adoption, foreign adoption, open adoption and independent adoption. Each has its own costs, risks and emotional process. It's helpful in the adoption process to contact other adoptive parents or a human services group that can give you more information and function as an adoption support group.
The real challenge is that each agency has it's own standards for who will be perfect parents for an adopted child. The agency will consider your age, stability, parenting skills, financial background. Most likely a social worker will visit your home and ask personal questions. Unfortunately, adoption agencies are still not open to non-traditional families like older couples, singles, gay men and lesbians. Fees for the adoption agency range from several hundred to several thousand. Once you've made it past the hurdle of being accepted as an adoptive family, you will have a child in your life and you'll need to answer his or her question about adoption in a honest and satisfactory way.