Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Starting an Adoption Series Wrap Up

Here's the compilation of my previous posts...

Two Bits of Wisdom
Questions to Ask
Risk
Who Are We?
Open Versus Closed Adoptions
Adoption Finances
The Dark Side of Adoption

One more thing I'd like to share regarding waiting children...
Even though I think it is important that people consider adoption options that are good fits for their families, I do think it it is important to consider ALL of the options that are out there.  The reality is the greatest need in adoption is not for people willing to parent through domestic infant adoption.  The reality is there are thousands of kids waiting both internationally and in foster care.  By considering one of those options, you drastically change the course of your adoption (in many ways) including the time frame to being matched.  Again, if those options aren't a good fit for you, then that's okay.  It's important to do what your family needs to do.  But do some thinking about why and consider those who wait.  Take the time to look through the faces of those who wait; perhaps it will encourage you to consider an option you previously thought impossible.

Rainbow Kids-must register first, will allow you to create and save a customized "list" based on ages, countries of origin, and special needs, this list then pulls up the children listed with them who meet these criteria

Reece's Rainbow-one of my favorite adoption sites simply because of the way it works, the idea is to create accounts for specific kids who are harder to place which allows people to deposit money into each child's account to offset their adoption costs, specializes in Down Syndrome, moderate to severe physical needs, and HIV positive children (not as scary as it sounds-do your research)

CHASK-advocates for special needs children in a variety of ways, works with birth parents who will give birth to a special needs child to help them either parent or choose adoption, also has a waiting child section for children in the US who are in need of families (usually special need infants or parents disrupting a finalized adoption  which means children with severe behavioral challenges)

Advocate for Waiting Child Yahoo group-Yahoo discussion group which requires you to join, it is set up for parents wanting to adopt from China, I think it is useful for two reasons:  1.  it shows you hundreds of children who area available for adoption in China right now and gives you a good idea of what types of children are available and 2.  often there are adoption situations listed that are not specific to China that you might find yourself interested in

AdoptUSKids-database for children across the US in foster care, allows you to search for children based on ages, special needs, state, etc., can be frustrating as you often cannot get information from case workers unless you have a completed home study, the listings can be outdated, and it can be hard to get case workers to communicate with you

Heart Gallery-the Heart Gallery is a project that connects local photographers to kids who are waiting in foster care, the photographers take professional portraits and the portraits are used to advocate for permanent homes for these kids, this is organized by state

A Family For Every Child-also connected to the US foster care system, does have a smaller number of profiles of available children, also offers matching assistance for families who want to adopt from foster care and who are willing to adopt children older than 6, sibling sets, or children with special needs

Ordinary Hero-international database of waiting children, does require registration

No Hands But Ours-a great combination of waiting children profiles, blog posts regarding adoption, special needs resources, and information on agencies, geared to Chinese adoption

Positively Orphaned-international database of HIV positive children who are waiting for families

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