Adoption can you choose child

Adoptions may be differentiated based on the age of the child being adopted. In contrast, an Older Child adoption occurs when the child being adopted is school age or older approximately years of age. For some adoptive parents, infant adoption is the only choice they are willing to consider, as they want to raise their child from as close to birth as possible. Other parents feel that it is better to adopt an older child who, by virtue of his or her age, may not be as "adoptable" as are younger children.

How soon can you expect a reply? How heavy is their caseload, and how does this affect their availability to you? Youcan also contact us. These resources are available to all families. If you are home studied or foster-care licensed and approved to adopt, you can register on our site to access additional tools:. When using our national and state photolistings , be sure your worker knows you are looking at these websites and making inquiries.

After you have made an inquiry on a child, the follow-up process may take some time, so remember to be patient. At the same time, you should feel comfortable enough with your caseworker to call if too much time has gone by and see if the follow-up contact has been made. To find out more about using photolistings or registering on our site , contact us.

Try to get the most information you can about a child when you have been informed you are being considered as a possible match.

Have a family meeting to discuss how you would make accommodations to welcome this child into your home. Such accommodations could include:. You can have a degree of control and ownership in the matching process if you identify upfront what you want, what you can accept, and what is not acceptable. The more invested you and the child are, the more likely it will be a successful match.

Personal biases and value judgments can easily find their way into the decision-making process as caseworkers and others match children and families. Your adoption agency may also belong to a consortium of neighbouring adoption agencies and your social worker will know of children within the consortium needing adoptive families. A voluntary adoption agency VAA does not have children in their care.

If you have been approved by a VAA your social worker will seek a match with children currently waiting for an adoptive family. Your social worker may do this with you and it should outline your ages, interests and the age of children you wish to consider. Your profile should give the backgrounds of children you could consider and any special skills or experiences you would bring to adoption.

Take a look at our template with helpful tips to help you create yours. You will have discussed with your social worker the backgrounds of children that you hope to care for. Your social worker will have gained an understanding of your particular strengths, together with your experiences with children and the skills that will equip you to manage the challenges ahead.

Information about your ethnic and religious background will have been discussed and how you would support children from a range of different backgrounds. Find out more about the children. Link Maker is an online service that allows adopters and family-finders to add profiles of families and children waiting online and search for potential links. Adopters can receive enquiries from social workers through the system, and make their own enquiries about children.