Adoption is a wonderful path to pursue. It leads to a heartwarming story, such as one Indiana woman who went to an adopted family when she was 10 years old and decades later met her sister for the first time at 73 years old. Children get a loving home, and a family becomes complete.
If you are thinking of adopting, then you should prepare yourself for a long, difficult process that has an incredible reward at the end. Before you begin, you need to think about what kind of adoption you would prefer. There are several variants out there, and you need to weigh the aspects of each one to determine which is best for you.
Closed vs. open adoption
A child’s birth parents can choose to have an open or closed adoption. In an open adoption, information is out there that would allow the child to reconnect with his or her birth parents eventually. In a closed adoption, that information does not come to the forefront. As an adopting parent, you will need to consider whether you are comfortable with the birth parents potentially playing a role in the child’s life at some point.
Foster-adopt
Some parents want to foster a child first. The couple will take care of the new addition as a foster child. There exists the possibility the parents will legally adopt the child down the line.
International adoption
Many people want to adopt a child who comes from another country. While it is a valid endeavor, it is a complicated process, and you should be ready to complete quite a bit of paperwork. You should check a country’s laws regarding adoption because many countries around the globe forbid international adoption. You should also get in touch with agencies such as the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services that can help guide you through the process. The process is long but worth it.
