Domestic adoption

Yup, it is really 2 am and I am blogging. This is because I am on call and at work waiting for an open operating room to take a patient in for surgery. Have about 40 minutes to kill.

So...where was I? Oh! We put aside the thought of international adoption for the time being. Domestic adoption has a lot of misconceptions. This time my mind stuck on:

"You have to go through your own state and it can only be done after fostering."

Again this is not true. Adoption laws have changed and you can now adopt from any state. There are numerous websites that have information on the various children that are looking for a home. Some states have different regulations, but for the most part it doesn't matter where you live. There are stipulations the child ma have that could prohibit you from adopting such as wanting to stay close to older siblings, aunts/uncles or grandparents that reside in a certain place.

As for the fostering first this is true in a way. There is a post placement period that is required by law and varies depending on the state you live in. I guess this could be considered a "fostering" period but really the child is yours if everything works out. There is a seperate form of adoption where you enter into a foster situation first to test the waters or because while the child has been taken away from their parents they have not legally given up their rights to the child. This way you are not obligated to adopt if things do not work out.

I began to keep an eye on the adoption lists. There were some adorable children needing love. Dusty and I considered sibling adoption - adopting the whole family unit to keep them together. I think had we gone this route this is what we would have done. We ended up deciding against this as our primary route as well. We may end up expanding our family this way eventually, but for now we decided we wanted the experience of raising a child from birth. There are plusses and minuses for both. For me the fear of when to tell the child they are adopted and how they will take it is very real with infant adoption. Adopting an older child in the foster system pretty much guarantees that they know they are adopted and are happy to have a permament place to call home. However, most of these children are in the system due to bad parenting originally and have emotional issues to resolve and they already have a set personality that you have to get to know.

Either way you are giving a child what they need most - a home, love and support. Having never had a baby I really wanted to experience everything. Once again we shifted gears and looked into domestic infant adoption.