If you’ve come to adoption after spending a lot of money and emotion on fertility treatments, you might be hesitant to spend more. Many people wonder “Why isn’t adoption free since so many children need homes?”
It seems like a simple situation: a woman wants to place her baby up for adoption, and there’s a couple who desperately want to adopt. So it shouldn’t take much effort, right? The reality of it is that there are so many things that go on behind the scenes to make adoptions happen. If you’re wondering why companies charge couples money to adopt, here are a few reasons:
Avoiding Scams
There are a lot of people who perform adoption scams. They pose as a pregnant woman thinking about adoption so that they can get financial help from hopeful adoptive parents. Adoption professionals have a thorough screening process that’s designed to reduce the chance for their clients to face an adoption scam. As a result, many scammers are weeded out before they speak with an adoptive family.
Sensitive Information
To adopt, you’ll need to have a home study, which entails having your whole life typed up in a document. Your home study contains almost every personal detail about you including your address and social security number. Your adoption professional should have systems in place to protect your data so that only authorized staff can access your personal information. When you pay your adoption professional, you can be rest-assured that they have layered security, and all your information is kept secure and private.
24 Hour Availability
When you enlist the help of a professional in order to adopt, you’re paying trusted and experienced professionals. Many professionals will have staff who are available 24 hours a day for clients. They’re available around the clock for birth mothers who may call in the middle of the night. If she calls in at 2:30am interested in placing her baby with you, you wouldn’t want her to hang up because no one was available.
Not Everyone Places
There’s a statistic in adoption: for each woman who places her baby for adoption, the adoption company is usually working with another NINE who won’t, for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s because the baby’s father won’t agree, or maybe she has lost the baby. Also, she may have just changed her mind about the adoption. There’s no way to know who’ll go through with adoption. So, when you work with an adoption professional, you’re paying them to give each possible birth mother support during their decision-making process.
Nationwide Adoptions
When you enlist the help of an adoption professional who works nationwide, you’re afforded with many benefits. It gives you an increased chance to adopt sooner because the adoption search is open to tons more situations than just a local match. Working with a professional who provides nationwide services also allows clients who live in states with limiting adoption laws to use the laws of their birth mother’s state. Thirdly, there are privacy reasons for not working locally with an adoption. It may be that the adoptive parents don’t want to see their child’s birth mother in their hometown.
Utilities and Staff
Like any company, there are costs to operate the business, like computers, utilities, and the staff to support adoptive parents and birth parents. There’s also behind-the-scenes staff, who are web developers, blog writers, mail runners, and administrative assistants. Adoption professionals aren’t staffed with volunteers, but rather with qualified experts who work over forty hours per week, year after year. Think about it this way: in both adoption and with a biological pregnancy, you’re trusting educated and trained professionals to help you bring your baby home.
Adoption Matching and Planning
Before adoptive parents are contacted about a birth mother who’s interested in them, there’s a lot of work performed on their behalf. The birth mother may have a legal consultation or counseling, and her worker needs to prepare a custom packet for her filled with adoptive parent profiles that match her preferences. Also, her worker will need to obtain her medical records and analyze any questions. And, if the first family she chooses does not want to match with her, her worker must delicately explain that she has to pick another adoptive family. Some matches require a lot of work: sometimes it takes ten requests to get medical records finally, or the birth mother doesn’t have a phone to be reached at, or maybe the adoptive family doesn’t get the needed legal assistance. The adoption professional is handling these details for multiple matches at once, and each needs to be handled with care and confidentiality to keep the process as fluid as possible for all involved.
Here at Adoption Financing Information, we understand the financial costs involved in beginning a path to adoption. We’re here to help you invest prudently in the services your adoption will need. Explore our site, so that you can plan a reasonable adoption budget and stay within that budget. As with any major life event, adoption requires planning and sacrifice, but any adoptive parent will tell you, “it’s so worth it!” Once you bring home your baby through an infant adoption, your success in adoption should be measured by the joy you experience in being a parent each day!
