In choosing your adoption preferences, it’s vital that you take a look at how flexible you are in your preferences, and how long you are willing to wait for a match.
When an adoptive couple becomes fully active, then the wait to be chosen starts. And the wait is mostly out of your control, with the exception of these three items: gender preference, profile, and budget.
A very important part of your preferences is if you are gender specific or not. If you choose to be gender specific, you’ll probably wait longer to find an adoption situation that matches your preferences. Keep in mind, many birth mothers don’t want to find out whether they’re having a boy or girl. Of all of the birth mothers working with Lifetime, about half know what gender they’re having and half don’t. Of the birth mothers that do know the gender of their baby, half of them are having girls and half are having boys. As a result, you’d only be presented to about 25% or less of Lifetime’s adoption opportunities if you’re gender specific.
So, the best way that you can shorten your wait time is to be as open as possible in your adoption preferences. The more open you are, the more times we can present your profile to birth mothers. An adoptive family who is open to either gender will almost always match sooner than a gender-specific family, since their profile will be shown to more birth mothers. Also, gender-specific adoptive families should expect the need for a larger adoption budget. This is because their longer wait times will mean more advertising required to find a birth mother.
If you’ve chosen to start your adoption journey with Lifetime being gender-specific, you can always open up on this preference later on to increase your exposure to prospective birth mothers.
Learn more about adoption preferences and adopting a baby by chatting with one of our Adoption Coordinators today! If you are looking to adopt, just give us a call at 1-800-923-6784.
As Vice President of Lifetime Adoption, Heather Featherston holds an MBA and is passionate about working with those facing adoption, pregnancy, and parenting issues. Heather has conducted training for birth parent advocates, spoken to professional groups, and has appeared on television and radio to discuss the multiple aspects of adoption. She has provided one-on-one support to women and hopeful adoptive parents working through adoption decisions.
Since 2002, she has been helping pregnant women and others in crisis to learn more about adoption. Heather also trains and speaks nationwide to pregnancy clinics to effectively meet the needs of women who want to explore adoption for their child. Today, she continues to address the concerns women have about adoption and supports the needs of women who choose adoption for their child.
As a published author of the book Called to Adoption, Featherston loves to see God’s hand at work every day as she helps children and families come together through adoption.
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