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How Can I Locate a Child Available for Adoption?

How Can I Locate a Child Available for Adoption?

There are various ways to locate a child available for adoption. Some options include networking with your friends and neighbors, using an agency or government organization, doctor or attorney referrals, using a surrogate or becoming a foster parent. By using these alternative means, you may find a child in need of a loving home. Various means of locating a child available for adoption are listed below.

Networking

Networking may be one approach to finding a child available for adoption. Begin talking to friends, relatives and co-workers and let them know that you are looking to adopt a child. Encourage them to speak to others about your desire for adoption; many connections have been made through word-of-mouth. Another option is to seek out churches and other places of worship. Often religious organizations have ties to other organizations that seek adoptive families for children in need. If neither option seems to be a possibility, some couples have been more creative when trying to locate a child and tried advertising in newspapers, magazines and billboards to help them locate children in need.

Agencies/Organizations

Traditionally, adoption agencies were the main place to go when adopting a child. There are more options today; however, agencies are still used by prospective adoptive parents. Many birth parents and prospective adoptive parents work with licensed adoption agencies. The agencies sometimes match birth and adoptive parents. On other occasions, prospective adoptive parents put their family information in a book that is reviewed by birth parents, who then select the family in which they wish their child placed. Some adoption agencies can also facilitate international adoptions. Similarly, there are government organizations that exist for facilitating adoptions within their geographic areas. Many children in the foster care system are waiting for adoptive families, and governmental organizations can help facilitate a match between such a child and your family. Some foster care programs also host social events at which children eligible for adoption and prospective adoptive parents can meet and attempt to get to know each other.

Referrals

Physicians and attorneys may be a good source of adoption referrals. Obstetricians and family practitioners often have contact with unwed mothers, and they may know one that has decided to place her child for adoption. Additionally, lawyers who work in the area of adoption and family law in general are great sources of leads. Adoption attorneys have established solid and far-reaching connections that can help you identify a child available for adoption or connect you with birth parents even before a child is born. Once a child or birth mother is located, an attorney can lead you through the maze of adoption paperwork, file all necessary documents with the court, represent you in court and help you complete a successful adoption.

Surrogacy/Foster Parents

Another option for locating a child to adopt is through a surrogacy arrangement. Surrogacy involves contracting with another woman to carry a child to term, who then relinquishes custody of the child immediately after it is born. In some instances, the surrogate carries a child that was conceived with sperm from the prospective father, in which case he is the legal father and only the prospective mother must adopt the child after it is born. In other instances, the child carried and delivered by the surrogate and is not biologically related to the prospective father or mother, in which case both parents need to adopt the child in order for their relationships to be legally recognized.

Similarly, being a foster parent can also lead to a successful adoption, though not always of the child that you are foster parenting. Sometimes when foster parents attempt to adopt their foster children, they are returned to their birth families or adopted by other couples. However, in some instances, foster parenting can lead to adoption of the foster child.

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