Before You Start the Adoption Process

Be wise in your choice of an adoption agency and adoption professional. If you don't know what to look for, or out for, you could lose money, time, and go through a lot of heartache.

Yes. You will need an adoption home study whether you choose to adopt domestically, which is within your country, or internationally, which means outside of you country. It will become a part of your dossier, or packet of paperwork. A home study is completed by a social worker who will meet with the family inside their home after filling out a bunch of paperwork. It's really no big deal. Really.

The adoption referral refers to when prospective adoptive parents get a call regarding a child that the country or agency has selected for them based on the family's criteria. The prospective adoptive parents will also receive information on the child's health. If, for any reason, the family feels that this child is not a match, they can decline the adoption referral.

Domestic Adoptions sometimes use a different term. When the prospective adoptive parent's criteria and a child's needs are similar, and the prospective adoptive parents read the file and agree, it is sometimes called a "match".

Consent must be given before any adoption can take place. Meaning, whoever is the child's legal guardian, be that a parent, the state, or a close relative, has to grant permission for the child to be adopted.

Taking in a child that is not legally free for adoption is considered to be a legal risk placement. Many times foster care adoption is a legal risk placement.

• Consent to Adoption - Definition
• Legally Free - Definition
• Legal Risk Placement - Definition

I have not heard of anyone getting an adoption subsidy for an internationally adopted child, but some children adopted through the foster care adoption program do qualify for monthly support.