Private Adoption, Adopting in 2023
Private Adoption, Adopting in 2023
If you are just starting the private adoption process, you are likely wondering if it is possible to adopt a baby within one year. You probably want someone to break down the exact steps to follow so you can adopt a baby in 2023. In this blog, we discuss the three things that my clients have done to adopt their babies in less than one year so you can follow a proven path to achieve your dreams of adopting a child no matter if you are working with an adoption agency, adoption attorney, adoption consultant or even self-matching your adoption.
While there are no industry-wide reported facts, I will share what I have observed in the adoption industry over the past year so we can put together your game plan for adopting in 2023.
The number of adoption opportunities has varied over the past few years while we were in the pandemic and shortly thereafter. However, over the past 3-6 months, the adoption rate seems to have continued to increase. Unfortunately, there are no industry-wide reported statistics, so I rely upon what I see in my clients and my connections to other professionals.
The unifying factor, no matter what type of adoption you are pursuing still, is the quality of the adoption profile and the number of times it is shown to people who are considering adoption. So that will be a big area of focus that I suggest hopeful adoptive families pay close attention to, but there are a few others as well.
7 things that you can do to help you adopt in 2023.
1. Be clear on why you want to adopt
The first thing that you can do to help make sure that you match in 2023 is to be clear on why you want to adopt. Now, I know you may be like, that is so obvious. I want to bring a baby home. But being clear on why you want to adopt will actually help you have kind of a goal and a focus area that will help keep you strong throughout the process and will help keep you motivated to really achieve your goal. If you have heard Start With Why, this is really the idea that says that if you are intently focused on the end goal and why you want to do that, that will make any journey much easier.
2. Choose the right type of adoption for your family
You want to be clear on what is your perfect adoption pathway for your family. Every family has a different set of goals and a different set of financial objectives, a different set of time objectives, all of which are factors in helping you determine the right adoption pathway for you. If you need help, you can head over to my Pathway resource. That will take you to a resource where I walk my clients through and we get specific on what they want their life to look like at the end of this journey. Then we really work backward to help them achieve that version of their lives by finding their perfect adoption pathway.
3. Have a clear plan of action to follow
The third thing is you want to have a very clear set of actions to follow. If you know, I need to do this, and this is how long it's gonna take, these are the steps in the right order, that will ultimately help you be more focused in your adoption journey and help it take less time. I have many clients that come to me, like, hey, I've been waiting for 18 months or 24 months in my adoption journey. When I really unpack their waiting period, they actually were waiting to do their home study for six months. Then once they did their home study, they did their adoption profile, it doesn't all have to be quite, so do this, then do that, and do that. Some things you want to run concurrently, that it actually takes you less time to get ready to be a live and waiting family. So, once you're live and waiting to match, then there are things that you can do even in that step to make things move a bit faster. If you need help with that, then you need to head on over to my Private Adoption School, where I walk you through the exact steps to follow there so that you could, again, achieve your objectives of adopting in less than one year.
4. Schedule time in your calendar to take the actions needed to make steady progress
Next, you want to schedule time on your calendar with that plan of action that I've walked you through step-by-step so that you can actually make things happen. It is great to go through training, it's great to go through courses and watch videos and all the things. But if you don't actually schedule time in your calendar to make it happen, it won't happen. That's one of the things that Jill and I talked about as we were preparing for her podcast episode that she was very intentional with how she was spending her time throughout her process. She said, I plan to get myself up 30 minutes earlier every day, so that I could work on the paperwork at the beginning. Then when it became time to do the profile, I worked 30 minutes earlier, every hour, got up 30 minutes earlier every day, and blocked out time for questions and to provide photos. It made it so much easier for her to walk through it. I had another client, Susie that really went through each individual step. But she did it all over the course of a weekend. She said you know what I decided this weekend that my husband was working. He was a doctor who was working on call, and I could sit down and do the majority of this on the weekend and not feel like I had to make meals or wash clothes or do anything else. She was like, I planned ahead and took care of all of those things. She knocked it out over the course of a Saturday and Sunday and wrote her entire profile. Then on another weekend, she ensured they provided all of their paperwork for their home study. So she just went into her calendar and blocked off weekends. That worked for her to be able to do that, and she didn't allow any kind of time with friends or family that weekend so that she could stay focused. So, making sure that you have time blocks in your calendar so that you're making slow and steady progress is very helpful.
5. Get an adoption professional’s help for those areas that require it
The fifth step that my clients that have matched in less than one year did is they got professional help throughout the process in order to make their decision-making process much faster. Now, can you go at it alone by Google and ask questions there and on Facebook? Absolutely. But will that take you more time? Absolutely it will, so instead, what you can do is hire select professionals to help you along the way. Maybe you have medical questions that are really hanging you up so that you can really fill out your questionnaire on what you feel equipped to parent. Well, then, why not head on over and check out Sarah at The Adoption Doc LLC, and ask her those questions? Sometimes paying a couple of $100 for an hour or two of someone's time is really helpful to you because it's going to make it faster for you to get through that.
There is a kind of a Time Expense equation here, my friends, I hate to be so crass about it. But you can spend all of your time Googling and asking questions in Facebook groups, or you can work with someone that's gone through it before and that has a lot of experience, and that can help you get your specific questions answered in a faster period of time, or that can just walk you through actual processes that people have followed to achieve success in their adoption journeys.
So, types of adoption professionals that you might want to have help with are someone to help you again, understand what type of adoption pathway is right for you, obviously someone that's going to help you through the home study process, but something that's going also to help you prepare for the home study process so that you can save time in that endeavor. Next, you might want to have help with creating and sharing your profile or asking questions to an actual pediatrician that has experience in adoption as it relates to medical records. Or you might even just want to have an initial conversation with an attorney so that you can better understand things that are working in your state and how the law works in your state to save yourself time.
6. Create and share your high-quality adoption profile regularly
The sixth way that you can really help yourself match in less than a year is by creating and ensuring a high-quality adoption profile. In my episode with Jill, she said that her expectant mama chose them because of her profile, and she had a good sense of who they were as a family. That made her feel more comfortable with her choice. And my friend, isn't that what we all want to hear? We want to hear that our expected family like us for who we are, and when we're sharing who we authentically are, that's what shows up in our profile.
When it comes to creating and sharing your high-quality adoption profile, it comes down to making sure that you're telling a clear story of who your family is in a way that appeals to what people are looking for. So again, being authentically you and then sharing it as much as possible. And again, I have tons and tons and tons of different videos for you on YouTube and on the podcast that you could listen to that walk you through what is a high-quality adoption profile. If you need help with your adoption profile today, head on over to my Adoption Profile resource, where you can see how you could set up a time to talk with me one on one about your adoption profile.
7. Be prepared to match
The seventh thing and final step for being prepared to match your adoption in less than a year is being prepared to have a conversation. Once you match, you can do all the things you can be intentional with your time, you can have a kind of a plan that you're following, it'd be step-by-step and moving through all of those things quickly. And then get to a match stage and have someone actually reach out to you in the beginning and have a conversation, and everything could fall apart. I know that it's really sad to hear but it is the truth. And that's the reason why being intentional with how you spend your time getting up to that point and really setting yourself a goal of like, okay, within four months, I'm going to be home study approved, and I'm going to have my profile ready. And I'm going to be out and sharing that so that I can focus on the next eight months. I'm really finding a match and being intentional with that time.
You want to be prepared for the conversations that come. I've had a lot of great conversations with Stephanie over at Adoption and Beyond. You can check out that episode where we talk about adoption outreach and an amazing program that she has where she teaches you how to do that, that really being intentional with the type of relationship you want to form with the expectant family, once you match, as well as how do you actually have those conversations and what's the right way to have the conversation. And this doesn't matter if you're matching through an agency, an attorney, a consultant or if you're self-matching. Either way, you're going to have conversations with the expectant family. And you want to make sure that you are really well equipped for that. And Stephanie's resources and program are really amazing for doing that. She has been a licensed social worker for well over 20 years or maybe even longer. And she has experienced all different types of situations and has a lot of rich and valuable information to help you there.
There you have it, the 7 things you can do to successfully adopt a baby in 2023.
I know at the time of this blog, we're nearing the end of 2022. You're likely planning ahead and setting your sights on where you're headed. My friend, this is the perfect time to be intentional about getting in a community and to learn from those that have gone before you. If you have any questions at any time on what to do or how to do it, remember anything's possible with the right plan and support and I'm just a direct message away. I'll see you soon, friends.
Hi, I Am Amanda
I am an adoption profile expert on a mission to teach you how to adopt and help you create and share your family's story more affordably!
