If you are planning a domestic,
independent adoption (See Chapter Six) for discussion of adoption options), the
birth parents may have the opportunity to establish criteria for the kind of
person or people who will receive their baby. This is not necessarily a problem
but it does create another set of eligibility requirements. If you are adopting
internationally or adopting an older child from the public system, you will not
have this issue.
You are a major stakeholder in this
adoption and you may establish criteria that need to be met in order to allow
yourselves to be considered in a particular adoption situation. For example,
you may not want to adopt a child any older than three years old or a child
with a severe medical problem. Your criteria are valid and important for you to
feel positive about the possibility of adoption.
While specific requirements will
vary from state to state and agency to agency, there are general areas of
consideration that you might want to be aware of as you begin your exploration.
As you might imagine, it is
somewhat easier for couples to adopt than for singles to adopt.
Birth parents
often prefer that their child grow up in a two parent family. However, that is
not always the case and there are many adoption options where being a single is
not an issue, particularly adoption from the foster care system and through
international adoption.
