Your Adoption Questions Answered

1. What type of adoption plan is available for me?

In our agency, birth parents create their own adoption plans. Therefore, each adoption plan is different and reflects the choices of the birth parents. Designing an adoption plan can be overwhelming! That is why we have experienced, caring social workers on staff who can help you consider all of your options and fashion the adoption plan that is best for you and your baby.

2. How do I select the adoptive family?

Our social worker will help you to identify what is most important to you in selecting an adoptive family. A few considerations might be:

• Whether the family is childless or has children

• Whether the mother works or stays at home

• Any religious preference

• Hobbies or leisure time activities

• Amount of openness desired

When you have decided on the type of adoptive family you want for your baby, we will give you letters and pictures from families that most closely fit your preferences. You may select the family from these letters, or if you choose, you may interview the family you select. The most important part of this process is for you to feel secure in the family you have chosen to parent your child.

3. How is a family approved to adopt?

Ohio law requires that adoptive families have an approved homestudy. This process includes criminal background checks, fingerprinting, review of financial statements, medical statements, home safety inspections, employment verifications, and written reference checks. In addition, each adoptive family must complete 12 hours of training in child development and adoption issues. Finally, our social workers conduct several counseling sessions in the adoptive family’s home to insure that the family is ready to adopt. Only after all of these requirements have been fulfilled is a family approved by our agency to become adoptive parents.

4. Will my baby go to foster care?

No. Your baby can go home from the hospital with the adoptive parents.

5. Are there any costs to me in making an adoption plan?

No. All costs associated with the birth and all legal expenses are paid by the adoptive parents. Counseling is provided to you by our agency for as long as needed at no cost.

6. Will I have to go to court?

No. If you work with our agency and your child is less than 6 months old, you do not need to go to court to make an adoption plan.

7. Will my child be able to find me later in life?

You will complete a form with our social worker that either permits or denies your child the right to obtain information about you when the child turns 18. The decision is yours.

8. Do you need information about the birth father?

Certainly an adoption can be completed without the birth father’s involvement in cases where the identity of the birth father is unknown or the birth father refuses to participate in the adoption plan. However, it is in the baby’s best interest that the birth father is informed of the adoption plan and we are able to get the birth father’s social and medical history. Every situation is unique and the circumstances of your relationship with the birth father will be discussed carefully with your social worker so that the best interests of the baby are secure.