Beginning your journey of adopting a child can be exciting and nerve-wracking all at once, especially if it’s your first time. Maybe you have fostered a child and are ready to make them a part of your family, or maybe you are ready to build your family through adoption.
No matter your situation, the adoption process can be difficult to navigate. Follow along for some tips on how to make this transition as seamless as possible for your family.
Speak to Your Support Systems
Before you begin your adoption journey, talk to the people in your life, such as your family, and friends who will support you as you welcome a child into your home. Let them know you are applying for adoption and are looking to expand your family.
Ideally, your friends and family will be happy for you and willing to help in any way they can. Some ideas could include making meals for your family while you get adjusted or hosting some sort of shower. While not necessarily a baby shower, especially if you are adopting an older child, you still might need to collect some necessities.
While working through this process, you will also want to talk to your employer. Just like welcoming home a baby, you will want to take some time off of work to help ease the transition. See what type of parental or adoptive leave your company offers to support you.
Talk to the Professionals
When beginning your adoption journey remember you don’t need to go through it alone. There are plenty of professionals that you can talk to that will help guide you through the complexities of adoption.
Start with an adoption consultant, this person will be able to connect you with credible organizations and guide you through the entirety of your adoption. These professionals can help prepare you and your family for any hurdles you may face and provide you with some support. They can also set you up with therapists and support groups to talk with families who are also going through this transition.
In person and online support groups are a great way to understand ways other couples are dealing with any challenges they are facing in their journey and can give you ideas on how to better handle your challenges.
If you need help finding and choosing the right adoption agency, there is an Infant Adoption Guide online course called Find My Adoption Agency that will walk you step-by-step through this process.
Once you have chosen an adoption professional who will help you adopt, you will be assigned a social worker. These social workers are responsible for making sure you are a suitable candidate for adoption, and that a child will be safe in your home. The social worker will compile information about you into what is called a homestudy. A homestudy is required for anyone hoping to adopt.
Finally, you may choose to consult with an adoption attorney. This is not necessary in every case, but if there are specific details you will want worked out between yourself and the biological parents, a legal agreement is the best way to establish those boundaries. Adoption attorneys can be pricey but can also be considered an investment if it avoids issues in the future.
Evaluate Your Living Space
Something to consider during the adoption process is your current living situation. A big part of this process will be the home inspections and check-ins during the completion of the homestudy.
Some of the items social workers look for during these evaluations include a fire safety plan, fences, child-proofed electronics, gates on stairs, and socialized pets. You will want to make sure you have a dedicated space for the child to live and grow up comfortably.
This space should be clean and free of safety hazards. If you don’t have a space like this you might want to consider adding an addition to your home or upgrading to a bigger space. Depending on what you are looking to do, home expansions can be quite costly, so you may consider leveraging the equity in your home to pay for any upgrades or an addition. This will allow you to use the value you have built in your home and make these necessary adjustments at a tax deductible rate.
Once you have a dedicated space you will want to make sure it is suitable for the interests and age of the child you are adopting. Sometimes it is too soon to determine that so use neutral accents to make the room appealing to children of all ages.
Organize Your Finances
Most people do not realize how costly the adoption process can be. Preparing financially can help alleviate some of the stress, that way you can focus on welcoming your new child into your home. The average adoption cost can range anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000, which will depend on variables such as age and the resources you use.
Some of this can include the agency adoption fees, court fees, paying the social workers, and possibly medical care for the biological mother. When you are beginning to think about this process you will want to start budgeting immediately. Evaluate your current financial situation and see what types of current saving you can start and spending habits you can eliminate to reach your financial goal of adoption sooner.
There are many different ways to go about the adoption process, sometimes it can take months, or sometimes a baby can come quickly and it’s time to rise to the occasion. You should make sure you have enough to cover the approximate cost of the adoption before initiating the process, that way if things move faster than you expected you can avoid going into debt.
Beyond budgeting for the cost of adoption, you will want to make sure that you have accounted for the increased cost associated with adding another member to the family. Make sure to adjust your spending accordingly to account for this. You may want to budget for a higher grocery bill, clothes, and other necessities like diapers or formula if you are bringing home a newborn.
Additionally, it might be best to either create or add to an emergency fund. Children can get sick or have emergencies, but if you are financially prepared for them it can prevent you from having to dip into other funds or debt. There are many resources on the Infant Adoption Guide Blog and Podcast to help you financially prepare for your adoption.
Working through the adoption process can be difficult but implementing these tips will help guide you smoothly through the process. For more information about adoption check out the rest of our blog articles or listen to episodes of the Infant Adoption Guide Podcast.
