Adoption

Answering Questions About Your Adoption After you've adopted your child and introduced him or her to your family, friends, and acquaintances, be prepared for an onslaught of questions—some of them quite rude. For instance, don't be surprised i...

Getting Ready for Your Adopted Child Once it begins to sink in that you will actually be bringing a new person into your home and family, you'll start to think about just how much there is to do to prepare for him or her. I'll walk you through s...

Birthmothers Who Change Their Minds About Adoption Probably the most intensely felt fear of adopters is that the birthmother will make an adoption plan—and then flip-flop and decide to raise the child herself. Very few birthmothers change thei...

Waiting for Your Adopted Child The wait is the hardest of all for you, the future adopter. Sure, other people can aggravate you with interminable questions, but you have an awful lot of questions, hopes, and fears yourself. So how do you manage ...

Adoption: Meeting a BirthmotherSome agencies or attorneys (or other adoption arrangers) think it's a good idea for a woman to meet the people who want to adopt her child. Some arrangers recommend a meeting on a first-name basis, whereas others f...

Prenatal Adoption Information If the child you're planning to adopt isn't yet born, whatever information you can gain about the pregnant woman and about the child's prenatal condition is important. Researchers are discovering that prenatal condi...

Explaining Adoption to a Young Child A simple story about adoption can suffice for the child who is 3 or 4. Most children like to hear their “adoption story.” When my son was little, he loved his story. He wanted to be told again and again h...

What You Need to Know About a Child You Might Adopt When the agency or attorney tells you about a child who's already been born, you should be sure to ask plenty of questions about the child's health and her environment. Here's a sampling of que...

Your Family's Reaction to Adoption If you have no children now and you plan to adopt, you can bet that your lifestyle will change. Your parents probably realize it. They know parenting isn't for sissies. Here are a few issues that might concern ...

Gay and Lesbian Adopters No one knows how many adopters are gay or lesbian, although some agencies openly welcome gay, lesbian, and bisexual applicants. It may well be that more gays and lesbians are seeking to adopt than in past years, as socie...

Adoption: When Problems Occur with Birthparents Although your relationship with the birthparents may start out great, sometimes problems develop later on. Keep in mind that relationships with family members (including one's own parents) are some...

Adoption: Surviving Your Social Worker Most adopters are at least a little afraid of their social worker—whether they admit it or not. Most social workers are compassionate people who want adopters to succeed. But they are human, and they have...

Adoption: What You Need to Know About Home Studies Why do agencies perform home studies? For one thing, home studies are required by law in most states, whether you adopt your child through an adoption agency or with the assistance of an adoptio...

Adoption: Finding Your Child Abroad Although a home study by an adoption agency is mandatory when adopting internationally, some families choose to do some of the legwork of actually finding a child themselves. I think that this is an extremely ...

What is Readoption? In the case of intercountry adoptions, some countries issue a final adoption decree to the adoptive parents while they are in the country. But the parents may seek a readoption, an additional adoption in their home state beyo...

Should You Adopt Internationally? Because you are dealing with two countries and usually have to travel overseas to go and get the child, international adoptions are by their very nature more complicated than U.S. adoptions. In addition to the f...

Adoptive Parent Rights Adopterms To finalize an adoption means to go to court before a judge to receive legal permission and recognition that the child is yours. There are also several other adoption issues affecting adoptive parents that are ha...

Adoption: Birthparent Rights The laws governing birthparents' rights and responsibilities differ widely from state to state. Birthfather rights, in particular, are all over the map, although a few highly public court battles in the late twentiet...