Adoption 101

Adoption creates forever families and means a forever commitment from everyone involved. If you’re seriously exploring adoption, pray and earnestly seek God’s guidance. Be sure you’re prepared to unconditionally love a child and to provide for his or her needs. Then do your homework; take time to research

your options thoroughly. This information can help you get started.

Adoption Statistics
Types of Adoption
Glossary of Adoption Terms
Children Available for Adoption
Types of Open Adoption
The Cost of Adoption
Resources to Defray Costs
Adoption Homestudy
Selecting an Adoption Professional

ADOPTION STATISTICS
• There are an estimated 6 million adopted persons in the United States.
• An estimated 118,779 children were adopted in 1993 in the United States.
• In 1998, 36,000 children were adopted from the public foster care system.
• In 2000, approximately 117,000 of the 520,000 children in foster care in the United States were eligible for adoption.
• In 2001, U.S. families adopted 19,237 foreign-born children.

TYPES OF ADOPTIONS
If you feel God is moving you toward adoption, there are many different paths you can take. Consider each of the following.

Public - Public, government-operated, or contracted private agencies place children in the public child welfare system in permanent homes. These adoptions often involve children with special needs (including physical, emotional, or mental disabilities or membership in a sibling group to be adopted together).

Private agency - A licensed (non-profit or for-profit) agency that places children in non-relative homes.

Independent - Children are placed in relative or non-relative homes by birthparents or through services of an attorney, facilitator, medical doctor, or member of clergy. Independent adoption is illegal in some states.

Kinship - A child is adopted by a relative, such as a grandparent.

Step-parent - The spouse of one birthparent adopts a child. These make up over half of U.S. adoptions each year. Most states provide a streamlined process in these cases.

International - U.S. families adopt children (usually orphans) who are citizens of a foreign nation; also called “intercountry.” In 2001, U.S. families adopted 19,237 foreign-born children. The countries with the highest number of successful adoptions were China, Russia, South Korea, Guatemala, the Ukraine, Romania, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, India, and Cambodia.

Private adoption agencies usually handle international adoptions. A few countries allow independent adoption through attorneys.

Immigration laws require that the adopted child be orphaned or abandoned or have only one living parent. Most international adoptions are from Asia, Eastern Europe, or Latin America. Many African and most Middle Eastern nations don’t allow international adoption; and no children from Western Europe, Australia, or Canada are eligible for adoption by U.S. families.

The process can be complex, paper-work intensive, and expensive, but the results are often more predictable.

GLOSSARY OF ADOPTION TERMS

Adoptee - A person who has been adopted; also “adopted child” or “adopted person.”

Adoption - Permanent legal transfer of all parental rights and responsibilities from one family to another.

Adoption agency - An organization that provides adoption services; these agencies may be public or private and are usually licensed by the state.

Adoption attorney - A lawyer who files, processes, and finalizes adoptions in court. In some states attorneys may also arrange adoptive placements.

Adoption triad - The three major parties in an adoption: birthparents, adoptive parents, and adopted child; also “adoption triangle” or “adoption circle.”

Birthparent - One of a child’s biological parents.

Closed adoption - Involves total confidentiality and sealed records.

Confidentiality - The legally required process of keeping identifying or other significant information secret.

Finalization - Final legal step in an adoption; involves a court hearing.

Open adoption - An adoption that involves initial or ongoing contact between birth and adoptive families, ranging from sending information through the agency to scheduling visits. See Types of Open Adoption

Private agencies - Non-governmental adoption agencies licensed by a state.

Public agencies - Social service agencies run by state or county governments that deal primarily with children in foster care.

Relative adoption - Adoption by a biological relative of the child.

Waiting children - Children in the public child welfare system who cannot return to their birth homes and need permanent, loving families.

CHILDREN AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION

U.S. Born Infants - A relatively small percentage of healthy, Caucasian infants are placed for adoption in the United States. (Most of these are private or independent adoptions.) African-American, Hispanic, and biracial infants are available for adoption through private and public agencies.

Waiting Children - These children are usually in a foster care system and typically have special needs. They may be older; have physical, emotional, or mental disabilities; be siblings who should be adopted together; or suffer from a history of abuse.

Children in International Orphanages - More than 700 U.S. private agencies place children from outside the United States for adoption; a few countries allow families to work directly with adoption attorneys.

TYPES OF OPEN ADOPTION
Open adoption means birthparents and adoptive parents have knowledge about each other. Birthparents may even help choose the adoptive parents. Adoptive parents and children have medical and genetic information about the birth family, as well as information that might help in dealing with emotional issues that can accompany adoption.

The amount of information or involvement in open adoptions varies, but in 69 percent of public and private agency adoption, the birthparents meet the adoptive couple. Sharing of information or contact between adoptive and birthparents of an adopted child can occur before, during, or after placement of child.

Open adoption is relatively new, and experts still disagree about how much information or contact is best for the overall emotional health of adoptees. The following are different types of open adoption:

Confidential - Minimal information is given and never transmitted directly; information exchange typically stops after adoption is finalized.

Mediated - Non-identifying information is shared between parties through adoption agency personnel.

Fully disclosed - Identifying information between adoptive and birth families is fully disclosed. This may involve direct meetings, phone calls, letters, or contact with extended family.

THE COST OF ADOPTION
Adoption expenses vary widely, but there are ways to keep the costs down. Again, do your research and ask questions.

Public agency adoption: $0 – 2,500. These adoptions are often free but can include travel and attorney’s fees.

Private agency adoption: $4,000 – 30,000. Costs include expenses for birthparent counseling, adoptive parent homestudy, child’s birth expenses, post-placement supervision, and a portion of agency costs.

Independent adoption: $8,000 – 30,000 (or more). Adoptive parents must cover all related costs, including legal representation for birthparents.
Costs for advertising alone can reach $5000. (Advertising is illegal in some states.)

International adoption: $7,000 – 25,000 (or more). Costs include agency fees, dossier and immigration processing fees, and court costs. Additional costs can include child foster care in many countries, parents’ travel and in-country stay, and child’s medical care and treatment.

RESOURCES TO DEFRAY COSTS
Adoption costs can often seem prohibitive, but governments are taking steps to make adoption more affordable. Look into these options as you consider adoption.

Federal Tax Credit - Adoptive parents with an annual adjusted gross income of $150,000 or less qualify for up to $10,000 in tax credits for each eligible child toward qualified adoption expenses paid or incurred. (A child of a taxpayer’s spouse is not eligible.) It’s also available for a special needs adoption regardless of whether qualified expenses are incurred. Consult your accountant for more details.

State Tax Credits - Several states offer state tax credits for adoptions from the public child welfare system. Contact your state adoption specialist.

Adoption From U.S. Public Foster Care System - If you’re interested in adopting a child waiting in foster care, fees are generally kept to a bare minimum or waived, and many of the children will be eligible for federally-funded or state-funded adoption subsidy payments to help meet ongoing needs.

Adoption Subsidy - Money is often provided for children with special needs to meet ongoing therapies or treatment.

Employer Benefits - Many employers provide benefits to adoptive parents, including paid or unpaid leave, reimbursement of some expenses, and assistance with adoption information.

ADOPTION HOMESTUDY
Once you apply to adopt a child, the law requires you to undergo a homestudy, which will evaluate your suitability to adopt and provide education about adoption. The process takes, on average, three to six months. The following is part of the information included:

Personal and family background
Marriage and family relationships
Motivation to adopt
Expectations for the child
Parenting and integration of the child into the family
Physical and health history
Education, employment, and finances
Summary and social worker’s recommendation

SELECTING AN ADOPTION PROFESSIONAL
If you’re considering private agency, independent, or international adoption, do a lot of research and ask a lot of questions before hiring an adoption professional. These are just a few of the things you should consider:

Get referrals from former clients and other adoption professionals.
Know the requirements concerning marital status, age, income, health, etc.
Consider the average wait time.
Find out what pre- and post-adoption services are provided.
Ask the professional’s philosophy regarding open adoption.
Get a comprehensive, itemized list of costs and fees.
If you’re interested in intercountry adoption, find out if the professional has traveled to visit the orphanages.
Ask to see the contract(s), and read them.

¹ This information is taken from www.calib.com/naic and www.startingadoptions.com. It is provided as general information only. Because adoption laws vary and change regularly, consult a local adoption professional in your area.

Adapted with permission from HomeLife May 2003.