The two main methods used to adopt a child are an adoption agency or an adoption lawyer. Many prospective parents can become confused between the two options, and what they offer in terms of their adoption journey. In this article we’ll be exploring why and how you might might use the legal services of an adoption lawyer, in regards to the adoption of your child.
The way you talk about your child’s adoption with them will naturally change as the child ages. As they grow older, they will be able to understand more of what you’re telling them, but their emotions regarding the adoption may also change over time. Below, we discuss some of what you can expect in each stage of your child’s development.
Many experts now recommend open adoption as the healthiest kind for all parties involved — it allows the child to know who their birth parents are, keeps the lines of communication open between all parties, and helps the birth parents to know how the child is faring, which can make the adoption placement much less stressful for them.
Adoptions can take a matter of months to years to finalize after initial placement. During this time, events called “disruptions” can occur that can lead a parent to decide that they do not want to keep that child. The adoption fails, and the child now returns to the system to be rehomed.
Prospective parents are given various tools to prevent disruptions, but the statistics are sobering. As many as one in four teenage adoptions fail. That is terribly harsh for children who have been neglected or abused and have struggled for years to find a family. But there are things a prospective parent can do to prevent these disruptions and bring their family together. Let’s look at the big picture.
Every child has the potential for developing a mental health illness. Environmental factors, family dynamics, nutrition, and chemical makeup can cause diagnosable and treatable mental and behavioral disorders in kids born and raised with their biological parents. However, adopted children are twice as likely to develop mental health issues due to their often-unstable backgrounds.
Most children who are placed for adoption desperately want to remain together with their sibling. Many agencies and social workers strive to place brothers and sisters with the same family. Unfortunately, that isn’t always possible, as some adoptive parents find the burden of multiple children too great.
Statistics show that about twenty percent of all children placed for adoption have at least one sibling, most of them under the age of ten. Keeping kids together from birth has a lower risk of adoption disruptions and a higher chance of emotional stability for the children. Prospective parents should to be aware of the wonderful joys and difficult challenges when choosing to adopt siblings into their family.
Giving a child a home through adoption is one of the greatest gifts you can give to a child. While many people adopt because they cannot have biological children, there are a growing number of people though who are combining children by adoption and by birth in their family.
Many adopting couples have found incredible support through family, friends, churches, and even social media services, such as Gofundme. That support often culminates with the official adoption, or when the child is brought into their new home. The need for support carries on well past that day though. The support needs for adopting parents may be financial, but often the more significant needs are more social and transitional in nature.
If you have adopted an infant or very young child, it can be difficult to discern when and how you to let them know about the adoption and explain what it means for them. The longer you wait, the more awkward the situation gets, and the more you may feel as though you are secretly deceiving your child. When should you begin and how should you talk to your child about their adoption?
Being a parent is a full-time job, as many moms and dads can well attest. Unlike many other jobs though, moms don’t often get sick days or paid vacation. How can you handle the stress of motherhood and prevent burnout? Here are a few tips.
