Domestic Adoption

This post is for those of you who are curious what 'domestic adoption' will mean for Dan and I.

What is domestic infant adoption?
Infant adoption is the adoption of a newborn or very young child (Dan and I will be adopting a newborn) whose birthparent has made the difficult decision that she is unable to parent at that point. These parents love and wish that they could parent their children but feel that adoptive placement is the best decision for their children. The parents relinquish their rights voluntarily. The majority of birthparents select and meet the prospective adoptive parents and want some level of openness in their adoption, which refers to a level of contact after the placement.

How long will we wait for a child?
This varies depending on when we are chosen by a birthmother, however, since Dan and I are younger and live in a nice neighborhood, chances are we will be chosen sooner rather than later.

What about ongoing contact with the birthparents?
Almost all domestic adoptions have some level of openness or contact between the adoptive and birthfamilies. The degree of openness is determined before placement. (Now, initially this scared me. In fact, going into this adoption process, most of you know I wanted to do international all the way. I shut my mind to domestic adoption...but God had other plans. At the end of the day it is just one more person who loves the child as much as you do. I am nervous about this aspect as it is the one thing that initially kept me from domestic adoption, but I have a feeling God knows what He is doing.)

So...this is the road that Dan and I are traveling. Like I said in my previous posting, I know risks are involved...but in the end a child will have a home, and parents will have a child. How cool is that?!?