5 Steps To Adopt A Baby in 2024
5 Steps To Adopt A Baby in 2024
Today, I am breaking down the five things that you need to do to match your adoption quickly. And I'm giving some bonus tips.
Determine the Type of Adoption that is Right for You
For those of you that might have been waiting for a while the first step in the adoption journey is deciding what type or types of adoption are right for you. Now, depending upon where you are in your journey, this can either feel like a foreign language, or like a step that you can quickly fast forward through, hear me say that the types of adoption that you choose to pursue can have a big impact in the speed and the ease of your overall adoption journey.
Let me give you an example. If you decide that self-matching is the right type of adoption for you, simply because it is the less expensive version of adoption, but you aren't willing to take action every single day to share your profile with your friends and family and with perfect strangers on Facebook or Instagram, then you're simply not going to match your adoption very quickly, if ever. But on the flip side, if you pick working with an adoption agency, but you don't have the budget to make that work, then you could spend years upon years trying to save enough money to realize your dreams of forming your family through adoption. So you must pick the type of adoption that aligns with your effort level and your budget level so that you can ultimately be successful in adopting.
If you're struggling to determine which type of adoption is right for you. I have an amazing quiz that will walk you through the process of deciding. Just answer a few small questions over at myadoptioncoach.com/quiz and it will help you get started. You're also going to get this amazing bonus guide that walks you through the steps of that particular type of adoption so that you can learn more about it to feel confident that that's the right type for you.
If you have been waiting a while with your agency or consultant, there could be two different dynamics at play for you. One, your profile might not be good enough. You might not be saying the right things in your adoption profile so that you'll get picked. The second thing that could be hurting you would be the lack of opportunities by your agency or consultant, meaning that they just don't have enough birth parents to potentially match you with and that could be holding you back. If you feel like that's the case, then I suggest you check out the quiz so that you can determine if you should be adding another type of adoption to help speed along your process so that you can bring home your baby.
Get Your Home Study Approved
Now let's move on to the second step in the process. And that is home study approval. A home study approval is required no matter which type of adoption you are pursuing. A home study involves a social worker coming in and reviewing paperwork, asking you some questions, and inspecting your home so that they can determine whether or not you are fit to parent a child through adoption. This is one of those steps you must do because if you don't you actually won't be legally allowed to adopt.
Now I know when I was going through my process that the idea of a home study made me feel a little nauseous and a little angry. Why did someone get to pass that judgment on me? Would I get approved? And ultimately, the fact that I had to go through this process at all made me a little upset. But I will tell you I saw it as a means to an end to reach my goal of bringing home my children through adoption.
Create and Share Your Adoption Profile
A bonus tip for you as you go through the home study process is actually to be working on your adoption profile. Now you don't want to rush through creating your adoption profile because it has the single most ability to determine whether or not an expectant parent chooses you to parent their child. So you don't want to rush it at all, my friend. If you need tips on how to create your profile, you can check out past blog posts and podcast episodes to get the step-by-step process that I suggest will help you match your adoption quickly. But the biggest thing you need to know is that your profile has to make an emotional connection. If your profile does not make an emotional connection with the expectant parent who's reviewing it, they're simply going to move on to the next one in the stack. And that means that you aren't getting fit. And if you've been waiting a while to match your adoption, this is most likely a big factor in it my friend. So if you need help with your adoption profile, feel free to DM me anytime on Instagram or Facebook, I'm here to help you.
Matching Your Adoption
The next step in the process is someone choosing you to parent their child. This is also called matching your adoption. Now this is going to look a little bit different if you're working with an agency or consultant versus if you're self-matching. But ultimately, they're going to have reviewed your profile, they're going to pick you and you're going to have some sort of communication while you are waiting for the baby to be born. Now this communication is going to look different depending upon who they are, where they are, and their preferences and yours. Sometimes this can look like meeting up in person. Sometimes this can look like simply exchanging text messages or phone calls. It's going to vary greatly. But your goal in this step of the process is to form a relationship and a bond that will last a lifetime.
Finalize Your Adoption
The next step is the baby's going to be born and your adoption is going to be finalized. Now these steps are going to vary greatly based upon the state that you live in and the laws that govern where a baby was born and where you live. But if you need help with understanding that I've got tons of past episodes back on my YouTube channel in the adoption law playlist, but before you head off to check out the YouTube channel, I suggest you scroll back and listen to the last episode if you haven't already, because it's going to help you match your adoption more quickly.
