Sunday, October 30, 2016

Adoption Options


When I began my research, I was slightly apprehensive as to how it would go. With such a broad topic, I knew I would have to focus on specific areas during each session. I decided to start by focusing on foster care since it often serves as a precursor to adoption. The foster care system attempts to provide a temporary safe home for children when their parents are unable to care for them for one reason or another. Children from 0-21 years old are placed in foster homes for as little as a day, to years. They often become eligible for adoption, and foster parents are the first ones given that option.
In order to first get involved as a foster parent, you have to be at least 21 years old, in good health, and pass background checks. There will then be 5 or 6 home visits over a 10-12 week period where people will inspect the home and carry out interviews with family members. Before you get your clearance and being matched with a child, most states also require you to participate in a training course. I found it comforting to know that there are background checks and home visits to ensure the children's’ safety. However, I wish that all states required the training course because I think more care has to be taken with foster children than with your own due to their backgrounds. I think that while the foster care system is good for providing temporary homes, kids can get stuck in it and “suffer” from being continuously moved around, and so we need to be doing more for these kids.



http://fostercare.com/become-a-foster-parent/




I then looked into the different types of adoption. Adoptions are split several different ways. The first is domestic( in the US) and international(outside of the US). Both processes are relatively the same price but have their own complications, although with domestic adoptions, I feel it might be easier to fix any problems since you are closer to the action. Also, the only way to get a true newborn is through domestic adoption because international adoption takes quite a bit of time.
The next set of categories pertains to how you want to go about the adoption, either through an agency-public or private- or independent of an agency, often with the help of an attorney or facilitator instead. Agency adoptions, and adoptions with attorneys are less risky due to the fact that they are governed by state law, and so they have a standard to live up to. In my opinion, there is advantage to having an agency or at least an attorney, to deal with the details that they are aware of and to have someone who is used to the system.
The terms “closed” and “open” often accompany adoption. Closed adoptions are usually where there is very limited contact and identifying information between birthparents and adoptive parents. Generally, open adoptions are when there is somewhat of a relationship between birthparents and adoptive families, often accompanied by information about the birth parents and contact. Adoptions range between these two extremes. Closed adoptions are becoming less popular as there are often negatives that accompany them. Presently, most agencies let the birth mother decide how much contact she wants, and semi-open adoptions- with mediated contact and small amounts of information exchanged- are becoming more popular. Both closed and open adoptions have pros and cons, but I believe adopting parents and birth parents alike, need to choose what they feel comfortable with, and find people who comply with those wishes.


I found a lot of good information this month and I am looking forward to exploring more in the following months. I found this site with articles about anything adoption-related that I am excited to browse. Check it out if you want! https://adoption.com/articles/adopt I also found this video that really touched me. If you want to see it: https://adoption.com/videos/466/from-foster-care-to-adoption-story/

Until next time!
Posted by at 1 comment:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)