How to Adopt a Child Through an Adoption Agency
The Process to Follow for Private Domestic Adoptions in Canada
Nov 25, 2008
Parents-to-be often dream of bringing home their baby from the hospital and beginning a blissful life together. Many people forming their families through adoption, have the same dream. The reality is that adopting a newborn infant is becoming less common as more birthparents are choosing to care for their children. Public adoption agencies in Canada indicate that it is an eight year wait for a healthy newborn through their systems.
The Challenges of Private Domestic Adoption
The biggest challenge of adopting a child privately either through an agency or licensee is that the number of birth parents choosing an adoption plan for their baby is decreasing each year. According to statistics compiled by Human Resources and Social Development Canada the number of private adoptions across Canada in 2004 was less than 500, with 172 of those taking place in Ontario. In 2007 in the same province, just over 100 babies were privately adopted.
Private domestic adoptions also cost adoptive parents anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 depending on the circumstances. The fees are used to cover legal and administrative expenses, travel costs, reports and documents, as well as birth parent counseling fees. The birth family does not pay anything to form an adoption plan for their child, nor do they receive compensation from the adopting family.
Despite the decreasing numbers of healthy babies available, there are many positives of adopting a child through a private domestic process, such as being able to adopt an infant and the possibility of having an open adoption.
Steps for a Private Adoption
Each adoption agency and licensee has its own processes, and every province and territory has different laws governing the legal aspect of adoption. Prospective adoptive parents need be familiar with adoption regulations before beginning the following steps:
- Have a homestudy completed by a licensed adoption practitioner. This may take from three months to a year depending on the information required from the adopting family.
- Sign up with adoption agencies and licensees. They will ask for a profile to show to prospective birth families and many require that applicants attend adoption training such as PRIDE training in Ontario. Couples may also want to proactively seek a birth mother considering an adoption plan for her child through advertising or posting on a website.
- Be chosen by a birth mother as the adoptive family for her child.
- Ensure the birth family seeks appropriate counseling, both legal and personal, to understand their rights in the adoption process.
- Review the medical and social histories of the birth parents.
- Place the child with the adoptive parents. In some cases, the baby goes to foster care first depending on timing and circumstances.
- Wait for the birth mother’s revocation of consent period to end. In Ontario this is 21 days after the consent papers are signed which can total up to 28 days in which the birth mother can change her mind.
- Have visits from an adoption practitioner to ensure the adoption placement is going well.
- Complete a post-placement report in collaboration with the adoption practitioner and submit it to the provincial ministry that manages adoption cases.
- Have the adoption finalized in court and receive an adoption order.
Adopting a child privately allows both birth families and adoptive families to have more control in the process. For more information on other adoption options read How to Adopt a Child from Another Country and How to Adopt a Child Through a Government Agency.
References
CanadaAdopts! website
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