Adoption provides babies without shelter a new chance at life.
If you are looking to share your home with a child in need of love, food and shelter, the route of adoption is a viable option. Adopting domestic and international children can take several years and cost up to $30,000 in processing fees. Before you contact a foster care center or adoption agency, you must decide what type of baby you are willing to adopt and from where.
Instructions
1. Consider what type of baby you want to adopt. The three main characteristics when considering adoption include race, gender and ethnicity. In a study conducted at New York University in September 2010, 67 percent of non-white babies in the adoption process will enter the foster care system. If you are considering adopting through the foster care system, take into consideration race and ethnicity. According to Dr. Stanley Grogg of New York University, many parents want to adopt babies because older children pose potential problems as to how they were raised.
2. Visit with or contact your nearest domestic or international adoption agency, depending on where you want to go for a child. International adoption agencies assist in communicating with orphanages in the country from which you wish to adopt. Domestic agencies match you with birth mothers, usually while the mother is still pregnant, or match you with prospective newborns. Adoption counselors screen families through home inspections, background checks and interviews to make sure the person or family is well-suited for parenthood and have the financial resources to care for the baby.
3. Contact a foster care system in your area. The foster care system requires the foster parent to attend a parenting course, go through an extensive home interview, provide a background check and show financial capability. According to AdoptUsKids.org, adopting a baby through the foster system has its advantages, including more babies to select from and the state will pay you a stipend each month for clothes and food for the child. Although there is a chance the biological parents will take the child back, once the court finalizes the adoption of your foster baby, it terminates any rights of the birth parents.
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