3 Steps for Finding an Adoptive Family for Your Baby

Before you can find the perfect family, you must first know what type of family you are looking for. Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you begin thinking of the perfect family and situation for your child: 

• Where will my baby grow up? Do you see your child living in a particular state, in the suburbs, or a large house? Whatever you imagine can become reality. It’s also important to know what you don’t want – for example, perhaps your child growing up either on a farm or in the city isn’t appealing to you. 
• Do I want my baby to have siblings? Maybe you want your baby to be an only child, or you’d like him or her to grow up in a large family. You may even want to find a family that has already adopted a child. 
• Should my baby look like his or her parents? For some women, it’s important to find a family that resembles their child or shares the same cultural background and traditions. 
• What kind of lifestyle should my baby have? Maybe you imagine your child growing up surrounded by music or taking lots of family road trips. What hobbies and traditions do you want your child to be exposed to? 
• What values are important to me? You want the adoptive family to share not only your love for your child but also your values. Similarly, you may want your baby to have a specific religious upbringing. 

Those are just some of the many details you get to decide when it comes to the adoptive family you choose.

Remember, you are in control of every aspect of the adoption process. Whatever you feel is important in an adoptive family you can find by working with experienced adoption professionals and an agency with a large, national presence.

Now that you’re ready to look for adoptive parents for your baby, you can contact an experienced, trusted and safe adoption agency to begin creating an adoption plan and provide you access to a database of available and active adoptive families. 

When choosing an adoption agency, here are some important things to consider: 

• Stability: Larger, licensed national agencies tend to operate with more stability, which is good for you. Years like 2020 taught us that anything can happen. Unfortunately, many small adoption agencies (and even some larger ones) were not prepared for that. They shut down or become unreliable. When you’re considering an agency, ask about their year-over-year placement numbers, how long they have been operating, and how many clients they work with at once.    
• Experience: A licensed social worker who has helped complete more adoptions will be more prepared to help you have a successful adoption process. But, there’s another layer of experience. How does the adoption agency you’re considering include the experiences of adoptive families, birth parents and adoptees on its staff? Representation matters, and agencies with staffs made up of people who have personally experienced adoption can offer the best support.   
• Availability: You’re going to have some late-night and early-morning needs. Will your agency answer the phone? Some agencies cut off at office hours, but the best agencies will be there for you 24/7. That’s what you need during the adoption process. 

Because of their size and scope, a national agency with a long record of successful placements can show you available adoptive families online before you meet with an adoption specialist.  

When you sit down to create an adoption plan, you may have already found a family that interests you. Be sure to talk to your adoption specialist about families that are potential matches based on initial impressions from their profile.

The final step of this process is to ensure the family you have selected is indeed right for your child. The best way to be sure is by interacting with them via phone, video chat, email, in person or other forms of communication. 

While getting to know the adoptive family, consider the following: 

• Are they who I thought they were? 
• Do they match everything I wanted? 
• Are they respectful of me and my wishes? 
• Did they act excited to get to know me? 
• Did they act excited to grow their family through adoption? 
• Do they feel like the right family? 

Women in your position choose adoption to provide the best possible life for their children. When you meet the right parents, you will feel their warmth and excitement to grow their family, and – most importantly – their love for your baby. 

Your specialist will help facilitate your relationship with the adoptive family you choose with mediation to begin building a strong foundation leading to a lifelong bond.