What About Making an Adoption Plan?
No option is more misunderstood than adoption. Today, the adoption process is more focused on the needs of the expectant woman or birth mother. Coordinators understand that a woman needs full disclosure and thorough counseling to be satisfied with the process.
Parenting via adoption is one of the hardest and most loving decisions a woman will ever make. Don’t discount this option until you have learned more about it.
What is Adoption?
Adoption is the legal transfer of the rights and responsibilities of raising a child from the birth parents to adoptive parents. It is not co-parenting. It is a permanent plan for you, your child, and the adoptive family.
Adoption is often not considered as an option until later in pregnancy, or even after the baby is born. Adoption agencies can help you to walk through the process and connect you with potential families.
Why Would I Choose Adoption?
There are many reasons why women choose adoption. Perhaps they don’t feel financially able to raise a child, or it’s not the right time to parent. Some women choose adoption because they are already caring for others and lack the resources to handle another child.
Talking to an agency to ask questions doesn’t mean that you are obligated to go through with an adoption, and it can help you to decide if this option is a good fit for you or not.
Did You Know You Make All the Decisions?
As an expectant woman or birth mother, you can craft an adoption plan that is best for you.
You Choose the Potential Adoptive Parents
You can select the couple who will raise your child and, as a result, direct their future. Many couples are hoping to adopt throughout the country, and some sources say as many as 36 couples are waiting for every infant placed for adoption.
Would you like your child to grow up on a farm or live in the big city? Do you want them to be the oldest or have immediate siblings? By selecting their adoptive family, you shape the direction of their life.
You Choose the Adoption Plan
If you want to continue contact with your child and their adoptive family, choose an open or semi-open plan. In Colorado, you and the parents can draft a post-adoption contact agreement with an attorney, stating how and when you want contact.
Select a closed adoption plan if you would like to remain anonymous.
You Can Receive Pregnancy-Related Assistance
Although it costs you nothing to place your child for adoption, a woman working with a reputable coordinator or agency can receive pregnancy-related assistance.
An agency pays for your prenatal medical costs, childbirth, and post-delivery counseling. You might also receive help with food, rent, clothing, and transportation. All of your legal fees are covered as well.
Adoption and foster care are two different things
In foster care, a child is temporarily removed by the state or social services and placed with different guardians when living with their parents or guardians is deemed unsafe or neglectful. The biological parents retain their parental rights but guardians are chosen by the state. The child(ren) will stay with a foster family until it has been determined that their parents are safe to return to or their parental rights are relinquished and the child is placed for adoption. The goal for foster care is for the separation to be temporary until their biological parents or guardians have learned the skills needed to provide a safe environment for their child(ren).
In adoption, the biological parents voluntarily waive their parental rights and are involved in the process of choosing an adoptive family for their child. The placement is permanent and full legal and custodial rights are given to the adoptive parents.
Would You Like to Learn More?
Alpha Center center can offer referrals to local adoption coordinators. We are not directly affiliated with any agencies and, therefore do not profit from your choice. Only you can determine the right course of action for you and your child.
Request an appointment at Alpha Center to discuss adoption and your other options.