Have you just started to research domestic infant adoption? When interviewing adoption agencies, make sure to find out what types of adoption opportunities they have. In other words, what are their birth parents seeking in adoptive parents for their child?
In an open adoption, the birth parents browse adoptive family profiles and choose the family they would like to adopt their baby. If the birth parents and adoptive family feel that they have the same expectations for how the adoption should proceed, they are “matched.” Both parties will agree on what type of contact or updates the birth parents will receive in the future, ranging from pictures on special occasions to a shared Facebook page for updates and even visits.
Learning about an adoption agency’s available adoption opportunities and what their birth mothers seek will help you find out if you’re a good fit for their adoption program. Below, we’ve included information about just a few of the many birth parents seeking adoptive families that Lifetime Adoption is currently helping:
Lifetime is helping a birth mother who is searching for an adoptive family to adopt her Caucasian baby due in September. The birth mother has the support of her immediate family with her adoption choice. She is looking for adoptive parents who would love her child as she does. She is open to any race of adoptive couple as well as a family with or without children. The birth mom hopes that the adoptive family instills a caring, kind heart as her baby grows up.
Lifetime is also looking for adoptive parents for a 10-month-old African American baby boy. The birth mother loves her child very much but is struggling to provide all that he needs. As a result, she feels adoption is be the best possible alternative. She hopes to place him with an African American or biracial adoptive couple who are solid in their careers and relationship. Her sweet little guy is healthy and thriving. She is considering an open adoption, including updates through possible phone calls, pictures, and seeing him once a year.
We’re also currently assisting a 29-year-old birth mother who is expecting in August. The baby’s race will be Caucasian, but its gender is unknown at this time. The birth mother is hoping to place with a Caucasian family who has financial stability and lots of love. She has insurance and will be starting her prenatal care soon. Her pregnancy has been going well so far, and there are no known health issues. Assistance with her pregnancy-related bills would be appreciated. She’s unsure how open she wants the adoption to be but would like to consider families willing to continue contact with her after her baby is born.
The first step to introducing you to adoption situations like these ones is to complete your FREE online application to adopt. If you’d like action steps towards adopting, complete the online application or call 727-493-0933 for more info.
What Are Birth Parents Like?
Many pregnant women and mothers contact Lifetime and are interested in learning more about placing a baby or child for adoption. Most don’t know what modern adoption can look like for them, others wonder if it is even possible due to a legal situation with the father, drug use, or her child’s age.
Lifetime strives to meet people where they are and help them get what they need to progress to the next step, even if it isn’t adoption. Our adoption professionals take the time to answer every inquiry that comes to us.
As hopeful adoptive parents start the adoption process, they often think they know what birth parents are like. They may believe that most birth mothers are abusing drugs or are teenagers. Indeed, there are some of both, but neither describes “most” parents who place a child for adoption.
The thing that all birth parents have in common is love. They love their child so much that they will go through grief and loss so that their child can have a better life than they can provide. The other thing that most birth parents have in common today is a desire for ongoing communication. Understandably, they want to know how their child is doing.
Adoption Opportunities at Lifetime
Our Adoption Situations page is meant to give prospective adoptive couples the chance to learn about real expectant mothers working with Lifetime.
A vital part of Lifetime’s program is that adoptive parents learn and come to understand the heart of a birth mother. So as hopeful adoptive parents looking for birth parents, you need to be ready to embrace not just the baby or child but also their birth mother as a vital part of her child’s story. The best way to navigate your journey as adoptive parents is to see the adoption triad as the “family of adoption.” So as you begin your search for an adoption opportunity, it’s good to keep that in mind.
The first step to introducing you to adoption situations like these ones is to complete the FREE online application to adopt. If you’d like action steps towards adopting, complete the online application or call 727-493-0933 for more info.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on March 17, 2014, and has since been updated.
Mardie Caldwell, C.O.A.P., is a nationally-recognized adoption expert and the Founder of Lifetime Adoption Agency. She has been working in adoption since 1986 and is also an award-winning author and speaker.
Mardie knows the sorrow of coping with infertility, and is an adoptive parent who experienced many of the challenges adoptive families might face. In various media appearances worldwide, publications, and her podcast, Mardie important steps that must be taken to complete a safe and secure adoption. Having adopted her son, Mardie knows firsthand the joys of raising an adopted child.
Mardie’s life mission is to help adoptive parents and birth parents find each other. With Lifetime Adoption Agency, she seeks to build happy families and provide precious infants and children with a loving and secure future.