I was just wondering how soon can a adoption take place when adopting domestically.
Do you have stories? Thanks in advance!
(My husband and I started the adoption process last month)
Tags: Adoption, Long, Process, Take
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January 22nd, 2010 at 11:14 PM
We were very lucky and chosen by a birth mother 3 months after our paperwork was in. She was only 3 months pregnant, so the adoption wasn’t finalized until a few months after the babies were born.
We actually got chosen a couple days after our paperwork was in, but we turned that adoption plan down because it was too expensive.
Private domestic adoptions take around a year if you are in a good agency. I am in an adoption play group and also have attended a few different support groups in the area to meet adoptive parents. Everyone seems to have the same time frame.
Things that can hold up your adoption would be asking for a specific gender or race – or not getting your fingerprints for the clearances in all states you have lived in and federal clearances.
Congratulations on your decision to adopt and I wish you the best.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:25 AM
We adopted through an agency. The homestudy/approval process took about 14 months.
From the time our homestudy was completed until the time we became parents was about two months. I was in shock. I was expecting a few years, not a few months.
When our daughter’s mother went to the agency she was already over 8 months pregnant. She gave birth and decided to place the baby for adoption a few weeks later. She asked to meet us based on our profile, but truthfully she didn’t have many options. There weren’t many approved couples open to a bi-racial child exposed to drugs.
Our daughter is now ten and she’s healthy, feisty, smart, funny and has no lingering issues from her drug exposure. For us, keeping an open mind helped us become parents.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:56 AM
My friends did a closed adoption.
The old fashoned kind where they didn’t meet the mother, they didn’t know when the baby was born, the agency people called and said “You’re baby is ready to go home from the hospital. Show up tomorrow with a carseat and you can bring home your son.” They showed up, signed papers, and brough home a 3 day old baby boy.
Altogether, they waited a little over 8 months once they started paperwork with the agency. There’s lots of paperwork and background checking. They waited 3 months on a waiting list for a baby to become available.
They paid about $15,000 for him.
January 23rd, 2010 at 5:26 AM
We adopted through fostercare…
From the very first class (as foster-to-adopt, we were required to take certification classes as a foster home) to a finalized adoption took almost exactly 2 years.
3 months to get ‘certified’
12 months after that before they were placed with us
3 months for their case to resolve
6 months after that we went before the judge to finalize the adoption
From what I have seen, most adoptions take about 2 years. In foster care cases it is impacted significantly by who you are looking to adopt, i.e. less if you take minorities, sibling groups (like we did), older kids, etc. or more time if you only want a white infant.
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:44 AM
It took us 6 months of paperwork to get approved and then we had a placement very soon thereafter (days). The actual adoption paperwork took another 5 months to get signed off in court. Essentially, 11 months. Now, with that having been said we spoke with a couple just yesterday that has been working on the paperwork for 2 years now and have still not been approved.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:13 PM
my parents did an interstate foster to adoption with my brother who is a special needs little boy. We found out about him through an email to all the families that went to the adoption summit (we bought the tickets, but didn’t actually go). We didn’t have any of our paperwork done, we weren’t even involved with an adoption agency at that time. anyways, we found out about him at the end of june of 2008. we started filling out all the paperwork, even though the social worker said it probably wouldn’t happen because of the time it should have taken us to get approved for adoption in california. By the end of august of 2008 we were approved in california, where we lived, and hawaii, where he was living, for adoption. We moved to hawaii as soon as we were approved and taught about his care. On sep. 11 of 2008 he was placed with us and on october 15th we adopted him. We then brought him home to california.
From the very begining to the end it took less than five months, which was from June 26th. to October 15th. of 2008
January 23rd, 2010 at 10:42 PM
If you adopt an African American child including an infant the process is extremely fast. African American children are adopted 8x’s less than White children.
That is an accurate stat!