Learn more about the adoption process.
Adult Adoptee Shares Her Raw Story
Today's blog post is written by a guest writer, Cathee Zimmerman Cooper, an adult adoptee from a closed adoption, who shares with us her experience as an adoptee and the advice she has for those who are parenting children through ...
Are You Prepared for The Actual Adoption?
If you’ve been following along this month, we are finally to the point where it gets really exciting, but also very nerve-wracking! You’ve been chosen as prospective adoptive parents for a child and you have to get prepared to possibly become a parent, likely in much less preparation time than you’d have if you were pregnant yourself. So, what do you need to know and become prepared for?! Click here to read more.
Being Chosen and Next Steps
You get chosen by an expectant family considering adoption for their child! Such amazing news and one of the major milestones in the domestic adoption journey. Many families have long waits and MANY presentations before they get to this point. But what is next? And what does being chosen really mean? Being chosen just means that you are one step closer to a child, and while it is a major milestone, that child may never actually be yours. Click here to read more about what happens after a match, and what NOT to do when you are chosen by an expectant parent whose baby isn’t expected for a bit.
Empathy and Care for Expectant Mothers
I’ve heard of a few circumstances lately where prospective adoptive parents act entitled to the child they have been chosen for, both before and after the birth of the child, but before consents are signed. This is one area I feel like prospective adoptive parents pursuing domestic infant adoption need the most education on - the respect and love that is required for any expectant mother they come into contact with in their adoption journey, and ultimately for the birth mother for their child.
To Fundraise or Not to Fundraise …
Today’s blog post is written by Purl Adoption Advisor, Kelcie Grace. She discusses the pros and cons of fundraising for your adoption journey -- Not everyone has tens of thousands of dollars sitting in a savings account, ready when they ...
Adoption Costs Today
Are you considering adoption, but are unsure of the various costs you may incur in order to adopt? The costs you might see in a domestic infant adoption will vary considerably depending on the type of adoption (private/independent, attorney, or agency adoption) and the state from which you are adopting. The adoption professionals recommended by Purl typically have adoption opportunities with total costs (including home study related costs) ranging between $14,000 and $60,000, with the majority today falling between $35,000 and $50,000. In this article, we break down the types of costs prospective adoptive parents may incur during their adoption journey. To read more, click here.
How The Adoption Profile is Used in An Adoption Journey
Recently, I watched the Red Table Talk where Jada Pinkett Smith and her mother, Adrienne Banfield Norris, hosted former Sex and the City star Kristin Davis for a talk about transracial adoption. I really enjoyed this podcast and think it can help many families considering transracial adoption (I look forward to including a post just about transracial adoption soon). However, one thing I found really interesting about this podcast was that both Jada and her mom were very surprised that the birth mothers for Kristin’s two African American children had actually chosen Kristin to raise their babies. That made me realize that there are probably many other people that don’t understand the domestic adoption process, and that it might help to educate about how adoptive parents are typically chosen - usually through the use of an adoption profile. To read more, click here.
The All-Important Adoption Profile
The Adoption Profile is one of the most important parts of the domestic adoption process! Why? Because it is typically how you are chosen by an expectant mom, or expectant parents, choosing adoption for their child. It can be difficult for expectant parents to interview or speak with numerous prospective adoptive families when making this decision, but still want to make the right choice for their child. So adoption profiles typically tell a prospective adoptive family’s story in a scrapbook-type manner, allowing expectant families to consider many different families more quickly as they make an adoption plan. Click here to read more about the adoption profile, how it is used in the domestic adoption process, and tips to create a great one!
Adoption Preferences In Your Journey
The domestic adoption process is so awkward in that you are essentially saying yes or no to a child. Sometimes you are doing it just by setting preferences in your adoption, but sometimes you’re actually reviewing a summary of an adoption opportunity and saying yes or no as to whether to present your family profile to the expectant family considering adoption for that child. When prospective adoptive parents start to consider their adoption preferences, many have no idea what they should say when adoption professionals ask what types of circumstances they would consider. Here are just a few of the things you should research and educate yourself on as you determine your adoption preferences, as well as some resources for helping you navigate these difficult decisions.
Choices You Must Make In Adoption
One of the things that I like least about the domestic infant adoption process is that prospective adoptive parents are basically saying yes or no to a child. Most people outside the adoption community might not realize that prospective adoptive parents basically set their “adoption preferences”, see adoption opportunities based on those preferences and then basically have to make a choice whether to “present” to an expectant parent choosing adoption for their child. Click here to read more about this awkwardness in the domestic infant adoption process.
The Home Study Process
The Home Study process in a domestic infant adoption seems really intimidating, but it is actually pretty low stress, aside from all the papercuts you will receive! Click here to read more about what the home study process is like for prospective adoptive parents in a domestic infant adoption.
Choosing Adoption Professionals For Your Journey
Who you choose to help you navigate your adoption journey is probably the most important step in the domestic infant adoption process. As we have discussed many times in past blog posts, we feel the best option for domestic infant adoption is to have someone guide you through the process, like we do at Purl. Click here to read more about finding an adoption professional to guide you on your adoption journey.
The Steps in a Domestic Infant Adoption
Many people consider adopting but become too discouraged by the complexity of the adoption process to proceed past an initial thought. Adoption requires research, education, preparation, money and time, with a lot of challenges along the way. No two adoptions will be the same, and each state's laws are a little different, but each domestic infant adoption will typically follow the same general steps: Click to read more!
What Type of Adoption is Right for Your Family?
There are many different ways to adopt, and deciding which route is right for you BEFORE you start the process is really important. Each of these types of adoptions discussed in this post will have different steps in the process, so it is helpful to do a lot of research on adoption generally (particularly the loss inherent in adoption) and talk with different adoption professionals first to determine the best route for you and your family — before you spend any substantial sum of money. In this post, you will find a brief discussion on domestic infant adoption, international adoption, adopting through foster care, and even embryo donation/adoption (really not adoption at all in most cases). We hope this quick summary will help you determine if any of these options are right for you.
National Adoption Awareness Month
November is National Awareness Month. During the month of November we celebrate and raise awareness of adoption. While every type of adoption is recognized, the particular focus of this month is to raise awareness about the urgent need for adoptive families for children and youth in foster care.
Since we don't typically operate in the foster care space, during November we will be offering a blog series looking at the domestic adoption process from start to finish, identifying resources, perspectives and ideas to educate and prepare families for adoption. We will be sharing both the positive and negative aspects of adoption, different from many professionals and adoptive parents who focus only on the positive narratives. Adoption begins from loss and there is trauma for every child, but there are usually beautiful parts to it as well. Our goal is to help adoptive parents recognize the complicated nature of adoption and be more prepared for it, so they can be the best parents they an be to their child.
Fall and My Thoughts on Disrupted Adoptions Today
Fall always used to be my (Katie, CEO/Founder of Purl's) favorite month. The weather changing, football, pumpkins, the start of the holiday season. But fall started to have a different feel for me 7 years ago as my husband and I began our personal adoption journey. We had been matched almost immediately after completing our home study with an expectant mom due with a baby boy in October. Even as a very unprepared adoptive parent ,I did know there was a possibility he wouldn’t end up being ours. But I was pretty clueless and even had a feeling of entitlement over that baby because we had been chosen, we had spent a lot of time with the expectant mom and had been paying living expenses for the expectant mom during the course of that pregnancy, and maybe even not so subconsciously I believed we would give this child a better life than this expectant mom could provide. Click here to read more about my thoughts on disrupted adoptions now.
Embrace the Curiosity of Your Child Through Adoption
Our writer today is Emily, Purl's Administrative Assistant and a transracial adoptee. In this blog she shares her fears relating to sharing her thoughts and curiosity surrounding her adoption with her adoptive parents. This blog post will help adoptive parents better understand the adoptee's perspective when they are curious about their birth family and the adoption generally and help adoptive parents be better prepared to talk to their child about adoption. Click here to read more.
Our Thoughts on Adoption Facilitators
“Facilitator” is a controversial word in the adoption community. Frankly, here at Purl, we always work very hard to ensure people understand we are NOT A FACILITATOR, and what we do instead (more on that later). But facilitators are so ...
Adult Adoptee Shares Her Raw Story
Today's blog post is written by a guest writer, Cathee Zimmerman Cooper, an adult adoptee from a closed adoption, who shares with us her experience as an adoptee and the advice she has for those who are parenting children through ...
Are You Prepared for The Actual Adoption?
If you’ve been following along this month, we are finally to the point where it gets really exciting, but also very nerve-wracking! You’ve been chosen as prospective adoptive parents for a child and you have to get prepared to possibly become a parent, likely in much less preparation time than you’d have if you were pregnant yourself. So, what do you need to know and become prepared for?! Click here to read more.
Being Chosen and Next Steps
You get chosen by an expectant family considering adoption for their child! Such amazing news and one of the major milestones in the domestic adoption journey. Many families have long waits and MANY presentations before they get to this point. But what is next? And what does being chosen really mean? Being chosen just means that you are one step closer to a child, and while it is a major milestone, that child may never actually be yours. Click here to read more about what happens after a match, and what NOT to do when you are chosen by an expectant parent whose baby isn’t expected for a bit.
Empathy and Care for Expectant Mothers
I’ve heard of a few circumstances lately where prospective adoptive parents act entitled to the child they have been chosen for, both before and after the birth of the child, but before consents are signed. This is one area I feel like prospective adoptive parents pursuing domestic infant adoption need the most education on - the respect and love that is required for any expectant mother they come into contact with in their adoption journey, and ultimately for the birth mother for their child.
To Fundraise or Not to Fundraise …
Today’s blog post is written by Purl Adoption Advisor, Kelcie Grace. She discusses the pros and cons of fundraising for your adoption journey -- Not everyone has tens of thousands of dollars sitting in a savings account, ready when they ...
Adoption Costs Today
Are you considering adoption, but are unsure of the various costs you may incur in order to adopt? The costs you might see in a domestic infant adoption will vary considerably depending on the type of adoption (private/independent, attorney, or agency adoption) and the state from which you are adopting. The adoption professionals recommended by Purl typically have adoption opportunities with total costs (including home study related costs) ranging between $14,000 and $60,000, with the majority today falling between $35,000 and $50,000. In this article, we break down the types of costs prospective adoptive parents may incur during their adoption journey. To read more, click here.
How The Adoption Profile is Used in An Adoption Journey
Recently, I watched the Red Table Talk where Jada Pinkett Smith and her mother, Adrienne Banfield Norris, hosted former Sex and the City star Kristin Davis for a talk about transracial adoption. I really enjoyed this podcast and think it can help many families considering transracial adoption (I look forward to including a post just about transracial adoption soon). However, one thing I found really interesting about this podcast was that both Jada and her mom were very surprised that the birth mothers for Kristin’s two African American children had actually chosen Kristin to raise their babies. That made me realize that there are probably many other people that don’t understand the domestic adoption process, and that it might help to educate about how adoptive parents are typically chosen - usually through the use of an adoption profile. To read more, click here.
The All-Important Adoption Profile
The Adoption Profile is one of the most important parts of the domestic adoption process! Why? Because it is typically how you are chosen by an expectant mom, or expectant parents, choosing adoption for their child. It can be difficult for expectant parents to interview or speak with numerous prospective adoptive families when making this decision, but still want to make the right choice for their child. So adoption profiles typically tell a prospective adoptive family’s story in a scrapbook-type manner, allowing expectant families to consider many different families more quickly as they make an adoption plan. Click here to read more about the adoption profile, how it is used in the domestic adoption process, and tips to create a great one!
Adoption Preferences In Your Journey
The domestic adoption process is so awkward in that you are essentially saying yes or no to a child. Sometimes you are doing it just by setting preferences in your adoption, but sometimes you’re actually reviewing a summary of an adoption opportunity and saying yes or no as to whether to present your family profile to the expectant family considering adoption for that child. When prospective adoptive parents start to consider their adoption preferences, many have no idea what they should say when adoption professionals ask what types of circumstances they would consider. Here are just a few of the things you should research and educate yourself on as you determine your adoption preferences, as well as some resources for helping you navigate these difficult decisions.
Choices You Must Make In Adoption
One of the things that I like least about the domestic infant adoption process is that prospective adoptive parents are basically saying yes or no to a child. Most people outside the adoption community might not realize that prospective adoptive parents basically set their “adoption preferences”, see adoption opportunities based on those preferences and then basically have to make a choice whether to “present” to an expectant parent choosing adoption for their child. Click here to read more about this awkwardness in the domestic infant adoption process.
The Home Study Process
The Home Study process in a domestic infant adoption seems really intimidating, but it is actually pretty low stress, aside from all the papercuts you will receive! Click here to read more about what the home study process is like for prospective adoptive parents in a domestic infant adoption.
Choosing Adoption Professionals For Your Journey
Who you choose to help you navigate your adoption journey is probably the most important step in the domestic infant adoption process. As we have discussed many times in past blog posts, we feel the best option for domestic infant adoption is to have someone guide you through the process, like we do at Purl. Click here to read more about finding an adoption professional to guide you on your adoption journey.
The Steps in a Domestic Infant Adoption
Many people consider adopting but become too discouraged by the complexity of the adoption process to proceed past an initial thought. Adoption requires research, education, preparation, money and time, with a lot of challenges along the way. No two adoptions will be the same, and each state's laws are a little different, but each domestic infant adoption will typically follow the same general steps: Click to read more!
What Type of Adoption is Right for Your Family?
There are many different ways to adopt, and deciding which route is right for you BEFORE you start the process is really important. Each of these types of adoptions discussed in this post will have different steps in the process, so it is helpful to do a lot of research on adoption generally (particularly the loss inherent in adoption) and talk with different adoption professionals first to determine the best route for you and your family — before you spend any substantial sum of money. In this post, you will find a brief discussion on domestic infant adoption, international adoption, adopting through foster care, and even embryo donation/adoption (really not adoption at all in most cases). We hope this quick summary will help you determine if any of these options are right for you.
National Adoption Awareness Month
November is National Awareness Month. During the month of November we celebrate and raise awareness of adoption. While every type of adoption is recognized, the particular focus of this month is to raise awareness about the urgent need for adoptive families for children and youth in foster care.
Since we don't typically operate in the foster care space, during November we will be offering a blog series looking at the domestic adoption process from start to finish, identifying resources, perspectives and ideas to educate and prepare families for adoption. We will be sharing both the positive and negative aspects of adoption, different from many professionals and adoptive parents who focus only on the positive narratives. Adoption begins from loss and there is trauma for every child, but there are usually beautiful parts to it as well. Our goal is to help adoptive parents recognize the complicated nature of adoption and be more prepared for it, so they can be the best parents they an be to their child.Fall and My Thoughts on Disrupted Adoptions Today
Fall always used to be my (Katie, CEO/Founder of Purl's) favorite month. The weather changing, football, pumpkins, the start of the holiday season. But fall started to have a different feel for me 7 years ago as my husband and I began our personal adoption journey. We had been matched almost immediately after completing our home study with an expectant mom due with a baby boy in October. Even as a very unprepared adoptive parent ,I did know there was a possibility he wouldn’t end up being ours. But I was pretty clueless and even had a feeling of entitlement over that baby because we had been chosen, we had spent a lot of time with the expectant mom and had been paying living expenses for the expectant mom during the course of that pregnancy, and maybe even not so subconsciously I believed we would give this child a better life than this expectant mom could provide. Click here to read more about my thoughts on disrupted adoptions now.
Embrace the Curiosity of Your Child Through Adoption
Our writer today is Emily, Purl's Administrative Assistant and a transracial adoptee. In this blog she shares her fears relating to sharing her thoughts and curiosity surrounding her adoption with her adoptive parents. This blog post will help adoptive parents better understand the adoptee's perspective when they are curious about their birth family and the adoption generally and help adoptive parents be better prepared to talk to their child about adoption. Click here to read more.
Our Thoughts on Adoption Facilitators
“Facilitator” is a controversial word in the adoption community. Frankly, here at Purl, we always work very hard to ensure people understand we are NOT A FACILITATOR, and what we do instead (more on that later). But facilitators are so ...
