In foster care or foster-adoption you receive a child into your home that has been removed from their primary caregivers for abuse or neglect. This is intended to be a temporary placement with the primary goal being reunification with their care givers. Often these caregivers will have to go through drug rehabilitation, parenting classes etc. before they can regain custody of their child. Your job as the foster parent is to provide love, stability and security to the child while assisting with the reunification process. Your number one goal CANNOT be to adopt this child permanently. Yes, about 50% of children who enter care do end up being adopted and most are adopted by their foster parents but you will experience great heartache if permanency is your objective when entering foster-adoption.Adopting a child from the foster care system is a permanent arrangement. A child who is available for adoption is said to be ‘legally free for adoption”. This means that the biological parents rights have been permanently terminated by the courts, all possible relative (kinship) placements have been evaluated and rejected and the foster family has declined to permanently adopt the child. When you are selected to adopt one of these children you are committing to be this child’s family forever. These children are at least toddlers and are typically school age, not newborns.
The eligibility and requirements to work with a child in state care varies from state to state. However, you do not have to own a home, be rich or be healthy to be approved. You do need to be mature, responsible and stable. We will help you ascertain the exact requirements in your state. Go to http://www.creatingchristianfamilies.com/ for more information.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Surrogacy
Sometimes a family is not comfortable with the complexities of a relationship with a child’s birth family. These families often opt for a closed adoption or an international adoption. As these types of adoptions are becoming more rare, they are looking towards surrogacy arrangements. There are two types of surrogacy agreements: traditional and gestational.
In a traditional surrogacy a woman agrees to carry a child for you while also allowing her eggs to be used for purposes of creating that child. This type of surrogacy is extremely risky as the surrogate must agree, after birth, to the placement of the child and the termination of her parental rights, much like in domestic adoption. There have been cases of surrogates deciding to parent what is half their biological child and the “other parents” having to share custody and even pay child support with the woman they hired as their surrogate. We do not involve ourselves in this type of surrogacy and suggest you don’t either; no matter how well you think you know the surrogate, the chance of heartbreak is high.
In gestational surrogacy there is no biological tie to the surrogate. The surrogate is the womb that carries a child for you and your spouse. She cannot change her mind after birth and decide to parent the child and, unlike in adoption, you can contractually make certain requirements of the surrogate, like no smoking, regular prenatal visits, drug screens etc. A family can also carefully select a surrogate whose beliefs and lifestyles match their own. However, because this type of surrogacy involves more complex medical procedures to achieve pregnancy, it is more expensive. A surrogate is also compensated for her time, much like you are compensated for your employment.
In a traditional surrogacy a woman agrees to carry a child for you while also allowing her eggs to be used for purposes of creating that child. This type of surrogacy is extremely risky as the surrogate must agree, after birth, to the placement of the child and the termination of her parental rights, much like in domestic adoption. There have been cases of surrogates deciding to parent what is half their biological child and the “other parents” having to share custody and even pay child support with the woman they hired as their surrogate. We do not involve ourselves in this type of surrogacy and suggest you don’t either; no matter how well you think you know the surrogate, the chance of heartbreak is high.
In gestational surrogacy there is no biological tie to the surrogate. The surrogate is the womb that carries a child for you and your spouse. She cannot change her mind after birth and decide to parent the child and, unlike in adoption, you can contractually make certain requirements of the surrogate, like no smoking, regular prenatal visits, drug screens etc. A family can also carefully select a surrogate whose beliefs and lifestyles match their own. However, because this type of surrogacy involves more complex medical procedures to achieve pregnancy, it is more expensive. A surrogate is also compensated for her time, much like you are compensated for your employment.
Domestic Adoption
No one knows the ins and outs of adoption better than the agency Creating Christian Families. Their website answers all of the big questions for all types of adoption. There are babies just waiting to become part of your family!
Domestic Adoption
In domestic adoption you work with a licensed agency or attorney to legally adopt a child. Generally the children available in domestic adoption are under two and most are newborns. There are children of all races available for adoption and you can often select the gender of the child. Typically the women looking to place children for adoption are in their 20’s and 30’s and already have one or more children. She knows what it takes to raise a child, emotionally and financially, and knows she cannot care for the child the way she would like. She can make an adoption plan for her child at any time, including after birth. Most adoptions are semi-open to open. It is very rare to find fully closed adoptions. In a semi-open to open adoption you have varying degrees of contact with the biological family, both pre-birth and after birth. Often that contact will go through an intermediary after birth but more and more frequently adoptive families and birth families are maintaining relationships on their own. Many studies have shown that this type of adoption is healthiest for the child and since we all love our children and want what is best for them, many of us are opting to have open adoptions, even if it is awkward and painful at times. Adoption is a painful sacrifice on the part of the birth family. It is often said that a mother may relinquish her rights to a child but not her love.
Domestic Adoption
In domestic adoption you work with a licensed agency or attorney to legally adopt a child. Generally the children available in domestic adoption are under two and most are newborns. There are children of all races available for adoption and you can often select the gender of the child. Typically the women looking to place children for adoption are in their 20’s and 30’s and already have one or more children. She knows what it takes to raise a child, emotionally and financially, and knows she cannot care for the child the way she would like. She can make an adoption plan for her child at any time, including after birth. Most adoptions are semi-open to open. It is very rare to find fully closed adoptions. In a semi-open to open adoption you have varying degrees of contact with the biological family, both pre-birth and after birth. Often that contact will go through an intermediary after birth but more and more frequently adoptive families and birth families are maintaining relationships on their own. Many studies have shown that this type of adoption is healthiest for the child and since we all love our children and want what is best for them, many of us are opting to have open adoptions, even if it is awkward and painful at times. Adoption is a painful sacrifice on the part of the birth family. It is often said that a mother may relinquish her rights to a child but not her love.
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