What’s The Difference Between An Orphanage And An Adoption Agency?
I know this probably sounds really stupid and I apologize. But I’m writing a book and there happens to be a spot where a girl goes looking for her biological mother without her adoptive parents help. Where would she go for the information; an adoption agency or the orphanage where she lived? And what’s the difference between the two, exactly?
Thanks for reading and any help is appreciated!
Tags: Adoption, Agency, Between, Difference, Orphanage, What's
January 4th, 2010 at 1:34 AM
Foster Home – Placement by Children & Families where a child is temporarily housed due to an emergency situation with the family.
The foster parents are screened by the agency.
Adoptive Home – The parents applied for an adoptive child and were granted the right of custody by the courts. The child becomes like their natural born child and assumes their legal surname.
Adoptive Agency- They are the agency that arranges the adoption.
Orphanage – An institution where children live and are supervised by an adult staff, their needs for food, shelter, and medical care are taken care of by the institution. The state and federal government regulate.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:24 AM
Unless your main character is an international adoptee or is over the age of maybe forty or fifty, she more than likely did not live in an orphanage at all.
If she was adopted at birth, she would go to the adoption agency that handled her adoption and seek “non identifiying information”. It would probably cost her money. Mine cost about 125$.
Also, to keep your story accurate, her original birth certificate is sealed and unavailable to her.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:55 AM
Orphanages don’t really exist in America…especially for babies. They are usually adopted right away.
Adoption Agencies place children with parents, they don’t actually house the children. Usually they are pregnant mothers who give birth and the child leaves the hospital with the adoptive parents.
There are orphanages other countries with babies that live there while they await adoption.
I work for a special needs adoption agecny. The children live in foster homes until a forever family is found for them. We do home assessments and child evals for adoption. We match, and do all the legal work.
ETA: there are some shelters and residential care places for children, but this is a last resort when they cannot be placed in a home.