Adopt a Baby - Adoption Information and Resources for Adopting a

In the world of adoption, the word "baby" can mean a child from newborn to toddler age (around 2 years), so here's a tip: if you're interested in adopting a newborn, limit yourself to domestic adoption agencies. Newborns are rarely, if ever, available for adoption internationally.

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Authors Lois Gilman and Susan Frievalds write, "In the past, families using an agency to adopt a newborn usually put their name on a list and waited for an agency social worker to make a match. Today, the birth parents get more of a say in choosing their child's adoptive parents. In the most common approach, the agency sends biographies of three or more sets of prospective adoptive parents to the birth parents, who pick the one they are most comfortable with. Then a meeting is set up for birth parents and adoptive parents to get together. This is what's known as an open adoption, and today at least half of the 15,000 or so domestic agency placements of infants each year involve birth parents and adoptive parents who have met each other.

While the recent trend toward openness seems threatening to some adoptive parents, many of them say that it removes the mystery from the adoption process and allows them to better answer their children's questions about who their birth mother was and why they were adopted. This can help immeasurably in allowing a child to come to terms with being adopted and feeling OK about it."read more

To learn more:

Are Babies Available for Adoption through Foster Care?

According to adoption expert Dr. Rita Laws, "Yes, there are adoptable infants with special needs. They are usually of mixed and minority race. Many have challenges associated with pre-natal drug exposure. Some of them are at risk of developing disabilities later, or have been exposed to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Unlike adopting healthy or low-risk babies, adopting infants with special needs usually requires a shorter wait, modest or no cost, and includes financial assistance programs for both the adoption, and for the cost of raising the child. Healthy U.S.-born Caucasian toddlers, pre-schoolers and small pre-school aged sibling groups of two members are just as rare as healthy Caucasian infants and are usually not considered to have "special needs." read more

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