I dont understand..Can anybody put me right on this? ?

Hayley France

"The adoption process" refers to checking that you will make a suitable adoptive parent and that your home is ok for a child to live in. It also includes the time taken to find a baby to be placed with you.

Once a suitable child has been found for you the transition from foster home to your home is fairly quick.

Before you will be "cleared" as a suitable adoptive parent you will have to attend verious meetings with social workers and child care workers. You will be allocated a social worker and she will conduct a few home visits and will probably want to meet other members of your family, especially other/grown up children if you have them. You will then have to wait till a suitable child is found, it's usually a lot faster if you want an older child than if you are looking to adopt a new born.

Kassy

It takes so long because there aren't a lot of babies available for adoption. You do your paperwork, and then you wait for someone to choose you. That's where the years come in.

Since you're thinking about adopting after you've had children of your own, I'm thinking you want to adopt to give a home to a child who needs one. In that case, a three year waiting list would tell you that there's no shortage of homes for babies. There's a shortage of babies for people looking to adopt.

If you want to adopt a child that's most in need of a home, look at adopting older children, or adopting through foster care.

pirate_princess

You get processed and checked then go on a list. When a baby is born the next suitable person on the list gets it, hence young babies and a long list.

luv_my_rats

Gotta have paperwork completed, with background checks, social service visits to the home environment... prove beyond reasonable doubt that you will be a good parent... If they required that of people who can make their own babies there would be sooooo many more childless couples, IMO.

BLW_KAM

The major reason is supply and demand. Too many people wanting to adopt vs the number of infants available for adoption.

A minor reason is the length of time it can take to be approved at a reputable agency. Good agencies have lengthy screening processes that can take a year or more.

In our situation, 14 months passed from our first informational adoption meeting until we were approved. Then there was the waiting time, which in our case was only two months. (We were fortunate because our daughter had drug exposure issues and we were on a short list of people who were prepared to help her through.)

grapesgum

It is estimated that for every available baby there are 40-100 couples looking to adopt. So the wait is long due to low supply and high demand. Now-a-days - most moms keep their babies rather than give them away.

There are thousands of older children available in foster care where the waiting time may be less.

Kate

Because by time you have been matched with a potential biological mother or infant you are nearing the end of the process. Typically, the last thing that is done is being matched with a child. Often a biological mother chooses a family while she is still pregnant.

Randy B

Much of it depends upon the type of adoption you do. Some adoptions are arranged for before the child is born. Kind of pre-approved and set up for once the birth occurs. Many don't like this kind of adoption but they do happen. Also, sometimes in foster to adopt situations where infants are taken from birth parents due to neglect or prior histories there are adoptions done of very young children. In my own case my wife and I were matched with a 4 day old who had been apprehended at the hospital from parents with an extensive history (6 prior apprehensions of children) with social services. She was finely adopted by us by the time she was 5 months old.

Suze is 10 weeks

People who adopt 6 week old babies had already been through the process, before that baby was even born. They don't see the baby and decide they would like to adopt it!
It takes a few years to go through the vetting process. It can then take another year or so to be given a child.

1st Baby due 6/26/09!

A friend of mine adopted and it was not a private adoption firm so while I haven't done it myself, I can only speak on what she has told me. When a child comes available you let your representative at the agency know if you would like to try for that child or not. If you want to try for it, all the representatives who have parents that wish to have that child meet with a mediator and they work it out in a room and decide who gets the child. It was very hard for my friend because although in the end she got a wonderful little boy, there were so many children that she tried for that she didn't get picked for and there's nothing you can do about it. You just know the day they are meeting and you wait for the call to say you have a child or you don't. But again, this is not private adoption. I don't know how that works, just that it costs a lot of money! I think in the end she was trying for about a year before she finally got her son.

monkeykitty83

The process involves a lot more than just being matched with a child.

There are interviews, criminal background checks, homestudies, and in some cases training classes. All this would be before you were ever matched.

Also, there are long waiting lists for infants. It is estimated that there are 40 waiting families per 1 healthy newborn who becomes available. While it's true that there are children waiting for homes, the ones who wait for long periods of time are not healthy infants, but older children and special needs children. Infants are in enormous demand by families. If you actually want to help a child in need of a home, consider adoption from foster care.

At some agencies that match pre-birth (the are reasons this can be considered unethical, so please read up on this) the expectant mother chooses from the profiles of prospective adoptive parents, so you'd be waiting longer if you weren't immediately chosen by a mother.

Please do some serious research about the issues involved in adoption before you begin the process. It's pretty complicated, and it's really important to have an understanding of what it will be like, both for you and for your adopted child.

Nancy R

Waiting lists. After everything checks out, you get put on a waiting list and when a baby of the gender, nationality and so forth that you've chosen is available, the next person on the list gets that baby. Don't rule out adopting older children either. Everyone wants a baby... But I see nothing sadder than a 17 yr old kid about to be 18 and on their own, casted out into a world where no one knows them, no one cares about them. I just wish we could find homes for all the children out there, or at least sterilise those people who should never breed...

cmc

With domestic adoption the mom usually picks the adoptive parents. Most agencies don't have a list where you get the "next baby". So it takes several months to do the paperwork and background checks needed, and then you are waiting. There are more people waiting than there are babies. You can wait a week or you can wait three years - you just don't know. Most babies are placed at birth (our daughter came home from the hospital with us).

With foster care adoption it is similar if you want a baby, since there may not be many babies available for adoption, so there can be a long wait until you're matched with a baby. There are far more older children available for fost-adopt.

Lori A

Future income for the agency. They have them lined up for the next 3 years, talk about job security.

Cool Hal

Please tell me this is a joke and you really could work that out all by yourself.

Lynn

They start looking for a baby to adopt 1-3 years in advance. It doesnt matter what baby. At the end of 3 years they get whatever 6 month old baby happens to be there

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