A Gift of Hope Adoptions

With the new year our agency phones are ringing off the hook. This is pretty normal, typically it is much slower during the month of December, when people are focused on holidays and family time, and then activity kicks up in January. It's almost like people are resolving to get their adoption on track for the year, which may very well be the case. After going through the holidays without a new little one, many people are determined not to let another year go by without getting their kid plans together. While it's good to get organized and get information about adoption, keep in mind that it's also important not to let your motivation to look into adoption be because of a New Year's resolution. You must really be prepared for adoption, and know that this is how you want to build your family, not just I want or need a baby now, because I don't have one yet. Particularly if you have been struggling with infertility, it's important to have finished with that process and the accompanying grief that goes with it. Infertility and grieving infertility has been getting a lot of press lately, I recently red an article in Redbook magazine (see article here) for their popular "Marriage Makeover" feature. Infertility and grief can take a toll on your marriage, and from a social worker perspective, I always want to make sure that the marriage is strong before I ever place a child in the home. So while getting information together is important, make sure you are really ready for it, because that will make the whole process much easier. You may want to look into counseling prior to starting the adoption homestudy, or ask your agency or homestudy social worker to schedule a couple of couples counseling sessions for you. That way there are no surprises when the homestudy begins.