Domestic Adoption Program
Adoption for Families maintains a small pool of families for domestic adoption. Our mission is "Finding families for children and children for Families." We feel we can best serve our families by keeping our pools small and limiting our work with birthparents. We have a semi-open process which means that the birthparent initially chooses a family from the Lifebook, which is a scrapbook of the adoptive family. The birthparents view the Lifebook of each family that is in our pool. Once the birthmother has decided to place her baby for adoption, a meeting is arranged with the adoptive family and the birth family. The birthparents are only given the first name of the prospective adoptive parents. The birthmother often wishes to have the adoptive mother attend medical appointments and they generally wish to have the adoptive family at the hospital when the baby is born.
Families who wish to be considered for our program must be comfortable with this type of contact with the birthparents. Following the birth, the adoptive parents are required to send letters and pictures to the agency on a regular basis and these are forwarded by the agency to the birthparents. Our birthparents often choose our agency because they know that we know our adoptive families well. We also have based our eligibility requirements on what we know from our 20 years experience on what most birthparents want in a family.
Waiting Period
The waiting period is indeterminate as you are chosen by the birthparents. You go immediately into a pool so your wait time could be almost nothing but should be no longer than 2 years. We try to eliminate the lengthy wait by our eligibility requirements.
Finances
With all domestic adoptions, your expenses cannot be determined ahead of time. You are expected to pay all expenses as if you were pregnant so there can be complications of pregnancy which create additional expenses you are expected to pay. Most birthmothers are on Medicaid which covers the cost of medical care but if you choose, you may also ask to be considered for those birthmothers who do not wish to apply for Medicaid. You also need to consider the tax credit(s) available to adoptive parents. You will also have attorney fees for your adoption, including attorney fees for the birthparents. You will have an agency fee and you will have one or two post placement visit fees.