Part 7
Today, we’re sharing part 7 in Lifetime Adoption’s new blog series, How to Be Successful in Domestic Infant Adoption. With this series, we hope to help you in learn how you can successfully adopt a baby with a shorter adoption wait!
If you’ve just started looking into infant adoption, you might be curious what it involves. Or, maybe you’re waiting for a birth mother to choose you and would like to speed things up. In either case, this blog series is for you!
Here are the top 8 things that successful adoptive parents have in common:
- Their home study is current
- Profile has been completed
- Adoption preferences are open
- Don’t turn down an adoption opportunity which is inside their preferences
- Have created an adoption video
- Prioritize their adoption
- Open to adopting a baby or child of either gender
- Attend Lifetime’s webinars
If you missed it, our last installment in this blog series was about the importance of prioritizing your adoption plans. Today, we’re sharing about item #7, why it’s beneficial to be open to adopting a baby or child of either gender.
Lifetime has experienced a number of birth mothers react negatively when they learn that an adoptive couple is only hoping to adopt a certain gender. They say things like, “You’re not able to pick the gender when you’re pregnant, so why should you if you’re adopting?”
Choosing the gender of your baby, deciding “girl only” or “boy only,” really lowers the amount of adoption situations you’re presented to. Many birth mothers don’t want to find out the gender of the baby they’re carrying.
Let’s look at an example: let’s say that half of the birth mothers Lifetime is talking to know what gender they’re having. Half don’t. Of half that know, 50% of those are having boys and the other 50% are having girls. Now, we’re down to 25% of the total adoption situations. You also have to take into account other adoption preferences, and whether or not these 25% would fit the additional preferences that you have (e.g. substance use, future contact, and race.) To sum it up, if an adoptive family is gender-specific, it could mean they’re only shown to fewer than 25% of Lifetime’s birth mothers!
Here’s the bottom line: it’s so important to ensure that your gender preferences are open enough for an adoption to be possible.
Stay tuned for the final installment of this blog series How to Be Successful in Domestic Infant Adoption! We’ll be telling you about why it’s essential to attend Lifetime’s free adoption webinars.
Founder of Lifetime Adoption, adoptive mom, adoption expert, and Certified Open Adoption Practitioner (C.O.A.P).
Since 1986, adoption expert Mardie Caldwell has been dedicated to bringing couples and birth parents together in order to fulfill their dreams.
“Many years ago, I was also searching for a child to adopt. We didn’t know where or how to get started. Through research, determination, and a prayer, our dream of a family became reality. I started with a plan, a notebook, assistance from a caring adoption consultant and a lot of hard work; this was my family I was building. We had a few heartaches along the way, but the pain of not having children was worse!
Within weeks we had three different birth mothers choose us. We were overwhelmed and delighted. Many unsettling events would take place before our adoption would be finalized, many months later. Little did I know that God was training and aligning me for the adoption work I now do today. It is my goal to share with our families the methods and plans which succeed and do not succeed. I believe adoption should be affordable and can be a wonderful “pregnancy” for the adoptive couple.
I have also been on both sides of infertility with the loss of seven pregnancies and then conceiving by new technology, giving birth to a healthy daughter. I have experienced first-hand the emotional pain of infertility and believe my experience allows me to serve your needs better.
It is my hope that for you, the prospective parents, your desire for a child will be fulfilled soon.”
0 Comments