Are you considering placing your child for adoption or adopting a child into your family? Adoption offers benefits to all parties involved: the birth family, the adoptive family, and the child.
Why is adoption good for the adoptive family?
There are several benefits of adoption for adoptive families including the following:
Becoming a Parent
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8.8% of married women between 15 and 49 years of age are infertile. Additionally, 13.1 percent of women aged 15 to 49 years old have impaired fecundity. Impaired fecundity is related to infertility and is defined as difficulty getting pregnant or carrying a baby to term.
There are numerous possible causes of infertility in both males and females. A few of the possible causes include Klinefelter’s syndrome, a malfunctioning pituitary gland, myotonic dystrophy, receiving certain types of chemotherapy, varicoceles, polycystic ovary syndrome, premature ovarian insufficiency (premature menopause), and blocked fallopian tube.
While there are financial expenses in the adoption process, it is substantially less expensive than in-vitro fertilization. Additionally, adoption gives single people and non-traditional couples the opportunity to become parents when they may not be able to otherwise. Adoption allows people who might not be able to have a child biologically to become parents.
Adoption also allows individuals who have always dreamed of raising a child the chance to fulfill their dreams. Adoptive parents have the opportunity to do all of the things they had dreamed they’d do with their kids as parents: playing board games together, helping them with homework, teaching them how to cook, going to the park together, watching them graduate from high school, and so much more.
Forming Meaningful Relationships
While closed adoptions were the norm in the past, in modern times open adoption is becoming increasingly more common. In an open adoption, the adoptive parents and birth parents share identifying information and maintain contact during and after the adoption process.
Every open adoption is unique, and it is up to both the birth parents and adoptive parents to decide how much information and contact they share. In some open adoptions, adoptive parents talk on the phone regularly with the birth parents. In others, the adoptive parents send occasional emails with photos and updates. There are also cases where birth parents visit the adopted child and their adoptive parents on a regular basis.
Open adoptions help adoptive parents to get information such as the birth family’s medical history from the birth parents when it’s necessary. Additionally, open adoptions allow adoptive parents to form meaningful relationships with their adopted child’s birth parents.
Providing a Stable Home
Every child deserves a stable and loving home. When you choose to adopt a child, you have the opportunity to provide them with a stable environment, love, and support. The child’s birth parents may not have been able to provide one or more of these things for any number of reasons.
When you choose to adopt a child, the supportive and loving environment you provide can help them thrive. You’ll feel a lot of joy watching your adopted child achieve their potential, goals, and dreams. You’ll be overjoyed watching them take their first steps, getting a good grade on a test, playing sports, watching them graduate, achieving goals in their career, getting married, and having a family of their own. Adoption is a lifelong commitment and provides you with a wonderful opportunity to develop a deep and meaningful relationship with your adopted child as they go through life.
Passing On Traditions
You probably have family traditions you would like to pass down. Maybe you have a family dinner every Sunday. Or perhaps you always put up your Christmas tree after Thanksgiving dinner. Adopting a child allows you to carry on family traditions. Additionally, adopting a child gives you the opportunity to pass on uplifting cultural practices and religious beliefs.
Experiencing New Things
Adopting a child will give you numerous opportunities to try and experience new things. One of the joys of parenthood is helping your child discover what they are interested in and talented at. Maybe your adopted daughter will want to join a ballet class, play soccer, or learn about exotic animals. Maybe your adopted son will want to get a pet lizard, learn to play the piano, or get involved with a theater production at school. You’ll have the opportunity to learn about and experience new things right alongside your adopted child. You may even discover some fun new hobbies yourself.
Employer-Provided Adoption Benefits
Some employers offer adoption benefits. The benefits and financial payments each company offers will differ, but some of the adoption benefits your employer might provide include a lump sum of money for an adoption or partial to full reimbursement for adoption-related expenses. Typical expenses your employer might cover include public or private adoption agency fees, legal fees, and court costs. Your employer may also provide some compensation for foreign adoption fees, foster care charges, transportation expenses, medical costs, birth mother expenses, and counseling services related to the placement and transition of a child. Some employers may provide more compensation for the adoption of a special needs child.
If your employer provides adoption benefits, they may pay per adoption or per child adopted. While most companies will compensate you after the adoption is finalized, some companies pay expenses when a child is placed or as expenses arise.
Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, employers with 50 or more employees are required to give new parents including adoptive parents up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child. The law applies to both mothers and fathers and ensures that parents have medical benefits and job security during their leave.
Why is adoption good for birth families?
Adoption is also beneficial to birth families. Here are the ways adoption benefits birth families:
Doing What’s Best for the Baby
If you are not in a position to start or add to your family, placing a child for adoption may be the best thing for your child. When you choose a family to place your child with, you can be assured that the family is able to provide for your child financially and can meet your child’s physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
Peace of Mind
Birth parents can have peace of mind knowing they’ve placed their baby with a pre-screened adoptive family. If you are a birth parent who decides to place your child in an open adoption, your peace of mind can continue as your child grows older. The continued contact you share with the adoptive parents and your child will help you know how your child is thriving with their adoptive family.
Doing What’s Best for Your Future
When a woman learns that she’s having an unplanned pregnancy, it can be incredibly stressful. In many cases, choosing to raise a baby halts a birth mother’s education or career. When you place a child for adoption, you may be doing what is not only best for your child’s future, but for yours as well. Placing a child for adoption may allow you to finish your education or to advance your career.
Younger birth mothers who choose to place a child for adoption are more likely to finish school and go on to receive higher education than those who choose to become parents. Additionally, birth mothers who choose to place a child for adoption are less likely to live in poverty than single mothers.
Financial Assistance and Resources
In most states, a birth mother can receive financial assistance while she’s pregnant. If you are a birth mother placing your child for adoption, there may be financial assistance for living expenses such as rent, utilities, and food. You may also receive financial assistance for maternity clothing. Financial assistance may also be provided for legal fees, medical costs, and counseling services. State and federal laws determine how much financial assistance you can receive and this varies from one state to another.
Why is adoption good for the adoptee?
Adoption benefits children in numerous ways as well. Here are the ways that adoptees benefit from adoption:
Love from Two Families
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If a child is placed in an open adoption, they will experience not only the love of their adoptive parents but the direct love of their birth family as well. Having many adults in their life can benefit an adopted child greatly as they grow up. They will most certainly have an adult to turn to for guidance, support, encouragement, and love whenever they need it. Whether a child is having a disagreement with a friend, struggling in school, not feeling well, or is simply having a bad day, they can know that there is someone available to listen to, help, and support them.
Additionally, a child placed in an open adoption won’t have as many unanswered questions. In an open adoption, a child can ask their birth family any questions they have about where they came from and why they were placed for adoption. An open adoption also allows a child to have a relationship with their birth family throughout their life.
Stability
Children are placed through adoption for a number of reasons. One of the most common reasons children are placed through adoption is that their birth family doesn’t feel like they can give the child the stable home they want them to have.
Many adoptive parents spend time preparing themselves and their homes for a child before the placement occurs. An adoptive family can provide a child with the emotional and financial stability they may not have received otherwise. Research indicates that adopted children are less likely to live in poverty and more likely to have health insurance than non-adopted, abandoned children.
An adoptive child may also have opportunities with an adoptive family that they would not have had otherwise. An adoptive family may be able to provide an adopted child with more attention, access to a higher education, a two-parent household, travel experiences, and a safe and stable home environment.
Family Life
If you are a birth mother and you want to place your child with a family that already has children, your adoption agency can connect you to such families. Growing up with siblings is a wonderful experience. It allows children to learn how to interact with others. Siblings can also become lifelong friends.
Many adoptive families contain two parents, which is also beneficial to adopted children. Children who live in two-parent households generally exhibit fewer behavior issues, have healthy and stable romantic relationships when they grow up, spend more time with their families, and are more likely to pursue higher education.
Individual Attention
Research shows that young adopted children are more likely to be read to by their adoptive parents than non-adopted children. Adopted children are also more likely to be sung to or told stories daily than non-adopted children.
Being Chosen
Many people worry about an adopted child’s feelings regarding being adopted. Some children may feel abandoned or unwanted, even though every case is different. If a child who as adopted does struggle with feelings of being unwanted, adoptive parents can tell their adoptee how badly they wanted them. Most adoptive parents spend years preparing themselves mentally, physically, and financially to adopt a child. Adoptive parents may seek a child to adopt for months or years before they find the child they add to their family. Adopted children can feel good about themselves knowing they were chosen by their adoptive family.
Adoption offers numerous benefits to all of the people involved. Adoptive parents get to add to their family and provide a loving, safe, and stable home to a child who needs it. By placing a child for adoption, birth families are doing what’s best for themselves and the child. Adopted children receive love from two families and opportunities that they might not have otherwise. Whether you are considering placing your child for adoption or thinking about adopting a child, it’s important to consider all the information including these benefits in your decision process.
Are you considering placing a child for adoption? Not sure what to do next? First, know that you are not alone. Visit Adoption.org or call 1-800-ADOPT-98 to speak to one of our Options Counselors to get compassionate, nonjudgmental support. We are here to assist you in any way we can. Are you ready to pursue adoption? Visit Adoption.org or call 1-800-ADOPT-98 to connect with compassionate, nonjudgmental adoption specialists who can help you get started on the journey of a lifetime.
