If you’re pregnant and curious about adoption for your baby, you’re probably wondering what the process is like. Lifetime Adoption is here to help you every step of the way. We are available 24/7 to walk you through the process, which can seem confusing and complicated at first. Today, we’re keeping things simple and breaking the process down into 5 steps.
Here are the steps to take if you’re making an adoption plan before your baby is born:
1. Communicate With an Adoption Professional
In order to begin your adoption process, you’ll need to reach out to an adoption professional. The caring Adoption Coordinators at Lifetime are here to share with you what your choices and rights are with open adoption. That way, you’ll be able to decide if adoption feels like the right choice for you and your baby.
2. Create Your Custom Adoption Plan
Lifetime is here to help as you build your own customized adoption plan, one that suits what you want. There are tons of choices with your personalized adoption plan, like which adoptive family you choose, how much contact you want with the family in the future, and the amount of contact you’d like to have with your child as they grow up.
3. Share About Yourself
Your Adoption Coordinator will work one-on-one with you as you share information about yourself. It’s important to share info such as your health history and about your baby’s father. This info will be useful not only to the adoptive couple you choose but also your child as he or she grows up.
4. Pick Your Baby’s Adoptive Parents
We encourage you to really think about what you’re looking for in your baby’s parents. Is it important to you that the adoptive couple be the same race as you? Do you want your child to be raised in a family with a stay-at-home mom? Maybe you’d like a couple who don’t have any children, yet. As you can see, there are lots of things to consider. Fortunately, Lifetime Adoption has hundreds of adoptive couples to suit what you’re looking for!
Once you’ve let us know what you’re looking for, we’ll mail you profile booklets about adoptive couples. (Don’t worry, we’ll send them in an unmarked package, in case you’re keeping your adoption plans under wraps right now.) We encourage you to choose your top choice adoptive family. Then, Lifetime will arrange for you to interview your top choice family over the phone, which really helps when you’re deciding if they seem like a good fit for you and your baby.
5. Receive Counseling (optional)
Lifetime encourages you to take advantage of our offer of free counseling from a licensed therapist. The counselor you speak with isn’t trying to persuade you to go through with adoption. She’s there to help you sort through the intense emotions you might be feeling right now.
Lifetime also offers peer counseling. You’re able to speak with a woman who’s already made an adoption plan for her child. We urge you to get counseling, both before and after your baby’s been born. It’ll help you handle the many emotions and questions you’re facing.
Making an adoption plan moves the process forward, and allows you to get to know the family you’ve chosen, but it doesn’t obligate you. At this point, adoption is flexible and can be adjusted to meet your needs and changing preferences.
Stay tuned because next Tuesday, we’re telling you what to expect with adoption after you deliver!
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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