Florida Panhandle Adoption Services

Dealing with an unexpected pregnancy can feel overwhelming. Modern, open adoption gives you many options and allows you to make the decisions for you and your baby. If you are currently parenting and feel it would be best for your child to be adopted, we can help you as well.

Here are some of the choices you have:

• Counseling. The decision to place your child for adoption is not an easy one. We can put you in touch with professional counselors who can help you work through your choices and peer counselors who have been in similar situations to yours.
• Choice of Adoptive Parents.With open adoption, you get to choose the adoptive parents for your child. If you would prefer they live near you in the Florida Panhandle or you would prefer they live in another state, we can show you adoptive parents locally or from across the nation. You can choose from parents of a certain religion, background, race, and lifestyle. They are as unique as you.
• After Adoption Contact.There are many other things we can help you with if you want. Every woman is in a different situation and we want to help you design a custom Florida adoption plan.
• Hospital Plan. Your adoption coordinator will help you make a hospital plan that is unique to you. You can decide who will be in the delivery room, who will hold and feed the baby first, and who will leave the hospital with the baby.
• Resources.If you are in need of financial assistance for rent, food, or other necessities, we can help. Your coordinator will make sure your needs are met during your pregnancy.

Working With a Florida Adoption Agency

While adoption can be a difficult choice, the process can be very simple. Our caring and experienced adoption coordinators will walk you through the process and be there for you throughout your pregnancy and even after the adoption. Whether you are attending Florida State University or working at The Sandbar, our coordinators will make sure you have the resources you need and the information necessary to make the right choices for you and your child during your adoption journey.

Step 1: Call or text Lifetime Adoption, a Florida Adoption Agency, and an adoption coordinator will help you get started. She will gather all the necessary information about you, your pregnancy, and your preferences for an adoptive family. Once all of this is gathered, and you provide your proof of pregnancy, you will move on to the next step.

Step 2: Your coordinator will provide you with adoptive parent profiles that she feels would be a good match for you and your baby. You can also view adoptive families online. You can choose a family that lives in the Florida Panhandle along the Apalachicola River or in California, or anywhere in between. You will then choose a family or a few families to speak with. We find most birth mothers just click with a couple, and a true match is made. If this is not a process you want to experience, your coordinator will be happy to choose an adoptive family for you.

Step 3: Now, you know who will adopt your child, so you will move on to planning your hospital plan. Your adoption coordinator will walk you through all of your options, such as who will be in the delivery room, who will hold the baby first, and many other options. With our coordinator’s experience, they know how to create a plan unique to you. Generally, the baby will leave the hospital with the adoptive parents, and your attorney will have the legal papers ready to sign within a day or so. Once signed, the adoption is final, and you may choose to have a Post Adoption Contact Agreement in place so you will know when and what kind of contact to expect.

Throughout this process, there will be no cost to you. You can even receive help with pregnancy-related expenses. You can receive counseling. We understand adoption is hard. It is an excellent time to look to the future and set your goals. We want to be a part of seeing those dreams come true.

Florida Panhandle Adoption Stories

Every adoption story is unique, but many are similar. Sometimes reading or hearing about someone who has had an experience like yours is comforting. We know when you discover you are facing an unplanned pregnancy, the choices in front of you can feel scary and hard to face. Here are how some women in your area handled their news.

Rachel from Pensacola was in the middle of a divorce. Her ex had been abusive, and she was finally going to escape her situation and move on to a brighter future. She didn’t have much, but she had a job as a cook at a nice restaurant in the downtown waterfront area. Then she found out she was pregnant. She called our agency, distraught. Would she have to go back to her husband? Would she have to quit the job she loved?

The answer was “no,” she would not have to do either of those things. Once we explained open adoption, how she could choose parents for her baby, and how she could get updates and even visits, she cried again but out of relief instead of grief. She chose an adoptive couple from Tallahassee. She felt they were a great match right away, and while she didn’t want to be in the same city, she wanted to be close enough to visit a couple of times a year. She now sees her child happy and healthy on her birthday every year.

Marissa was struggling with some addiction issues. She and her boyfriend were in the midst of party life in Panama City, and drugs and alcohol were part of every day. She ignored her pregnancy, and when she went into labor, she could ignore it no more. At the hospital, the Florida Department of Children and Families were called because her baby was born addicted. She was terrified of her baby going into foster care, and so when a nurse showed her a pamphlet from our Florida Adoption Agency, she placed the call at 11:00 pm.

Our adoption coordinator was there for her. She rounded up some adoptive family profiles she thought would be a good match, and by noon the next day, a delighted couple was on their way to the hospital to meet the newest member of their family. This was a happy ending for all. Marissa is now getting help, and seeing photos of her daughter is giving her strength to maintain her recovery.

Sitting on a park bench at her school, the University of Florida, Mary couldn’t believe that the pregnancy test she took this morning was positive. Looking out at the Gulf, she thought she should be thinking about what her career would be after college, not how she would care for a baby. She was a junior and was so close to graduating. While her friends and boyfriend told her to “just get an abortion,” she did not feel that was the right choice for her. This was an innocent baby, and she just could not do that. So was she just supposed to quit school, try and get a job, and parent this baby? She may be saving her baby’s life but then was she giving up hers?

She decided to give us a call, and as she tells us now, it was the most important call she has ever made. She found an adoptive couple’s profile that she just knew was perfect. They were Catholic like her, had an active lifestyle, and a son that would be a great big brother to her baby. Mary took one semester off and, with some support from the family and Birthmother Blessings, made it through those last couple of months of her pregnancy, and then she went back to school and graduated the next year. She loves getting on to Facebook and seeing the updates the adoptive parents post for her.

Questions from Pregnant Women Considering Adoption in the Florida Panhandle

Questions from Pasco County Pregnant Women Considering Adoption