There Are Several Types of Adoption
Each year, there are approximately 1.5 million children adopted in the United States. Just as no two families are quite the same, adoptions vary greatly on the personal, legal, financial and emotional levels. There are many people who are interested in adopting. However, it can get a bit tricky legally. Before contacting an attorney, learn about these five types of adoption.
1) Agency Adoption
Agency adoptions are any and all adoptions facilitated by an adoption agency. Agencies can be in the public, social services or private sector, and may facilitate both local and international adoptions. However, they may specialize in just one of these type.
To adopt through an agency, you must meet certain criteria before you will be placed on a waiting list. Once a child becomes available, you will be notified. As you can imagine, the wait can be quite long. You can decrease the amount of time you have to wait by keeping your wants and needs list open.
It can cost $5,000 to $30,000 for an agency adoption, depending on your agency and the location of the child being adopted.
2) Independent Adoption
Private or independent adoptions are facilitated by lawyers. To begin an independent adoption, you will first have to find a parent who wants to give a child up for adoption. You can do so by working with a local hospital, your church, an attorney who matches children with adopted parents or by searching for a mother on your own.
Private options generally don’t take as much time to accomplish as agency adoptions do, and you will have fewer hoops to jump through. The qualification process is also much simpler. However, you will have to participate in a home study, which is conducted by a social worker.
3) International Adoption
As you may have guessed, an international adoption involves adopting a child from another nation. While still possible, international adoption has become very tricky. As a result, the number of international adoptions has fallen by nearly 50 percent since 2004, a year that saw almost 23,000 international adoptions.
International adoption can get quite costly, and you will have to deal with the red tape and bureaucracies of two countries rather than one. You will also have to deal with immigration. International adoption takes the longest. In fact, some qualified adoptive parents pass the age at which they want to have more children before getting a child.
However, the emotional rewards that come from adopting internationally can make it worth the extra effort. For some couples, adopting internationally has long been a dream of theirs, or they may have ties to other places that lead them to want to adopt children from that particular country.
While it is not easy to adopt a child from another nation, it is possible, and you shouldn’t discount this option simply because it will take more work.
4) Kinship Adoption
Kinship adoptions are among the easiest and least expensive adoptions to pursue. In a kinship adoption, you petition the court to adopt the child of a relative, perhaps your daughter, nephew or sister. Kinship adoption is practical when the birth parents are deceased or unable to care for their children.
Since the court prefers to place children with relatives rather than putting them in foster care, the process is usually quick and straight forward. However, you may have to obtain temporary custody and wait a certain amount of time before you can adopt.
5) Adult Adoption
While they’re uncommon, adult adoptions do happen. You may wish to adopt an adult disabled child of a family member or close friend whom you’ve always thought of as a son or daughter. Adult adoptions facilitate inheritance negotiations and help provide care for adults who are unable to care for themselves. Generally, you must be at least 10 years older than the person you’re adopting.
As you can see, there are several types of adoption.
The type you choose will depend on your wants, needs and individual circumstances. Regardless of the type you choose, you will need an attorney. Call Justice Law Firm, PC, today to begin your adoption journey.