Private Adoption: 15 Things You Must Know About It

Though many see adoption home study as tedious and stressful, the exercise is meant to educate you as well as evaluate your home to know how well you have planned to adopt a child.

Understand that each state has its ways of completing a home study. For example, while some states will organize seminars, training classes, and orientations for adoptive parents, other states will conduct theirs in your home.

And your adoption attorney will finalize the whole process for you there in your state.

For the duration of the home study, expect it to last about 3- 6 months, and expect to pay $1000 for the home study.

Also, understand that it is your state that chooses who conducts the home study. The private agencies licensed by states are the ones that conduct the home study when it comes to private adoption.

Do You Need Private Adoption Attorneys For Your Adoption? 

Yes, you will need an attorney for your adoption, because every adoption process is guided by the law from the beginning to the end.

There are federal and state laws that apply to both the birth family and the prospective adoptive family, which also shows that adoption is not just a paper thing.

Adoption is about the filing of important documents and doing so with the right department and others.

Those Things I mentioned are not your job to do,  that’s where your attorney comes in.

It’s the job of your adoption lawyer or adoption law firm to do such legal paperwork and make sure you have a successful adoption process.

Your adoption attorney is always there to step into your complicated legal issues which neither you nor your agency staff can not handle.

How Would The Attorney Help You During Adoption?

The attorney you hired will work to help you facilitate and finalize a legal adoption.

They must guide you and the birth family throughout the adoption so much so that you are both satisfied with the whole legal process.

The attorney will provide you with a wide range of services,  including

• Helping you locate a private adoptee or a reputable agency.
• Make sure you are ready for your home study.
• Speed up your background checks.
• Help you handle legal issues and disputes.
• Prepare your paperwork and also review them.
• Etc.

Note also, that your private adoption attorney will help you neutralize the complex adoption processes and make them easier for you.

That also means that the agency you choose determines the future of your adoption and that’s why you must choose your adoption agency wisely.

Read this post to know how to find the best agency for your adoption.

Step Two: Find Tbe Best Adoption Match:-

What happens at this point is while the birth mother sits down with her adoption specialist to discuss what she wants regarding the placement of the child, the adoptive family is also preparing themselves, creating a family profile (with pictures and videos).

The family profile is what will be presented to the birth mother and the birth mother will make her choice after seeing the profile.

Pray that you’ll be selected at last; that is the most interesting part of the adoption process. If you are selected at last, your next step will be to meet the birth family.

Meeting And Knowing Each Other:- you:-

This is the time to meet the birth mother and to know each other. This is usually organized by the agency or attorney, and it is designed to give room for the birth mother and prospective adoptive family to meet.

Most time, the arrangers of this meeting will only want you and the birth mom to meet only in the first name basics, and other times they won’t want to hide anything about each other’s contact information.

Whatever your organizers prefer, just know that you and the birth mother will likely see through what is known as pre-placement contact.

Pre-placement contact can be referred to as any contact, which includes telephone, email, and face-to-face, between the families involved in the adoption before the adoption is finalized.

This is an opportunity to know and interact with each other. Remember to connect with your adoption professional for more about the meetings.

Completing The Hospital Stay:-

This is the most fearful stage of adoption. It is usually filled with emotional rollercoasters and expectations that your life will be changed forever.

This is the part of the adoption process that people are so worried about. However, one great thing about this stage is that it is also where you are sure to get all the support you need from your agent.

If you are a mother trying to place your child for adoption, your adoption plan puts you on top of the game of whatever happens at the hospital, and your adoption specialist will always be there to guide you well.

Your adoption specialist is also the one to coordinate with the prospective adoptive parents to make sure that everything went as planned and also help you complete the legal adoption paperwork when you delivered your child.

Once the consent to adoption has been given by the birth family and other things are in place, you (adoptive parents) will be given your new baby, and then the journey starts from that moment.

Adoption Finalization:-

Welcome to the last part of the adoption. This is the official finalization of the legal adoption process. That’s when the adopting family will be given permanent legal custody of their adopted child.

This process of finalization is usually done in court once the judge has reviewed the adoption to make sure everything was done perfectly well.

The adoptive family will have to be in court as the judge signs the final adoption decree, and legally give the child’s custody to the adoptive family, The legal part of the adoption ends here.

After the legal part of the adoption is completed, almost all the birth parents are always interested to receive updates about how the child is fairing, all adoption professionals are also in support of that.

Do well to ask your chosen adoption professional to know what they offer in their services.

The Pros And Cons Of Private Adoption:-

Pay close attention to this part of my articles, because you will learn why you should or should not go for a private adoption here.

1) if you are the type of mother that wants to raise a child from infancy, private adoption will give you that opportunity.

Almost all adult children are already in foster care, and you can only adopt them through a state agency.

2) Private adoption can be much faster and it can be completed in just a year, than any other type of adoption.

3) Adoptive parents and the child’s family share a considerable type of contact in private adoption than in any other type of adoption.

That’s great for the birth mother because the fear of not losing her baby forever is minimized. They have information about their child and in some cases, they also have the opportunity to be part of their baby’s life after adoption.

The Disadvantages Of Private Adoption:-

1) Nowadays, it is not that simple to find a birth mother that is willing to accept a private adoption.

So even when the private adoption process is the fastest, hopeful adoptive parents may wait forever to find a willing birth mother.

2) Private adoption is not that safe, because the birth mother may disappoint you by changing her mind about the adoption.

The birth mother may also have health challenges that may affect the child and the adoptive family won’t know about that

3) You may find it cheaper to work with an attorney than an agency in a private adoption when you consider other payments you made, including a few for a counselor, mediator,  etc it may be higher than that of normal adoption.

In Conclusion:-

Now that your questions about private adoption have been answered would you make up your mind to take your first step?

Let me know if there are other questions you have about adoption that I can answer for you.

Remember, I am your in-house adoption counselor Murphyaik.

See you at the top.