Considering Adoption
- Why Women Make an Adoption Plan
- Why Women Use an Adoption Agency
- Advantages of Adoption
- Adoption Realities and Myths
Why Women Make an Adoption Plan
Women consider and choose adoption for personal, financial, psychological, health, religious, cultural, and other reasons. While the reasons for placing a child for adoption may vary, birth mothers share a common trait of loving their babies and wanting what is best for them. They lovingly choose adoption to provide the best possible life for their children.
A birth mother makes an adoption plan because she has considered the alternatives and determined that adoption is the best plan for her child. She places her baby’s needs ahead of her own. A birth mother often wants a home for her child with loving people who are ready to become parents and have a supportive extended family. She wants her child to grow up in a great environment with lots of opportunities.
Why Women Use an Adoption Agency
Adoption Bridges of Kentucky is a licensed, private, non-profit child placing center. We are not part of the state foster care system. Pregnant women choose an adoption agency because of available services and benefits. Adoption Bridges of Kentucky offers a full range of services free of cost for birth mothers, including:
- Confidentiality
- Professional counseling throughout pregnancy and after the baby is born
- Advocacy
- Legal representation
- Choice of adoptive parents
- Progress reports and pictures of your child
- Financial assistance with pregnancy expenses
Our professional, experienced counselors assist pregnant women throughout Kentucky. They have the skills and commitment to guide prospective birth mothers through the stages of pregnancy and adoption. Our nonjudgmental counselors understand your feelings and respect your decisions. They can provide you with support to help reduce your anxieties and concerns.
At Adoption Bridges of Kentucky, you will have your own counselor, who will listen to you, help you explore your options, and assist you in developing an adoption plan. She will not make decisions for you but will give you the information and guidance you want to make choices.
Using a Kentucky adoption agency reduces risk to personal safety. You know your child will have adoptive parents who are free of any criminal background and sincere in wanting to give your child the best possible life they can. You also know that the adoption will be legal.
Adoption Bridges of Kentucky requires that adoptive parents complete 24 hours of education. Our agency helps prepare adoptive parents to adopt a child from another culture or ethnic group by offering specialized training in self-esteem, racial/ethnic identity, and cultural exposure. If you are carrying a special needs baby, our agency can access a network of adoptive parents who are ready to adopt children who need medical care.
You can request the degree of openness you would like to have in the adoption. For example, you can choose the adoptive parents you want to raise your child and get to know them, or you can remain anonymous. You can even tell us to select the adoptive parents. You can receive pictures of your child and progress updates about the child’s development.
With Adoption Bridges of Kentucky, you do not have to experience an unplanned pregnancy by yourself. We are here to help you throughout the adoption process to do what you think is best for you and your child.
Advantages of Adoption
Adoption Bridges of Kentucky believes that every child is a gift and every adoption is a miracle. For birth parents, who place their children for adoption, the advantages include:
- No cost to them for services that the agency provides.
- A choice of adoptive parents.
- Knowledge that their child is well-cared for.
- Opportunities for a better life, happy future, and success for their child.
- Pictures and progress reports of the child.
- Options for contact with the adoptive parents.
- Giving an adoptive family a chance to experience parenthood.
- The opportunity to achieve their own goals and make their own dreams come true.
- Relief from responsibility for a child for whom they are not prepared to parent.
- Making a decision that is in the child’s best interests.
Adoption provides advantages for children. Adopted children often have a childhood that is filled with opportunities found in a loving home with parents who ensure that their children reach developmental milestones, play, attend good schools, obtain quality medical care, develop their personal interests, travel, and enjoy extended family and friends. Adopted children grow up with parents who are eager to devote time, energy and love to raising a happy, healthy child.
Adopted children often have a quality education, which allows them to explore their interests and consider what they would like to be when they grow up. They have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities, such as sports or music lessons. Their parents are supportive and encourage them to do well. Adopted children can follow their interests in college and pursue a career that will ensure that they have a good life.
Adoption Realities and Myths
Today’s adoptions are very different than what people see in television dramas or read in sensational news stories. Birth parents now have the option of selecting and meeting the adoptive parents for their children. They receive photos and progress reports about their children who grow up healthy and happy in adopted homes.
Adoption Myth 1: Adoption Is Just Not Natural
The idea that adoption is not natural is far removed from reality. Since human beings have walked the earth, people have cared for and adopted children. Human beings have a natural inclination to ensure the survival of the species by caring for and nurturing the young.
Some people say that it is not natural to “give away their flesh and blood” by placing a child for adoption. The truth is that every child is an individual with his/her own personality, likes and dislikes, interests, and talents. Adoption may be the best way to ensure that a child will have an opportunity for a good childhood and happy life.
Adoption Myth 2: Adoptive Parents are Abusive
Adoptive parents look forward to raising children. They want the opportunity to love and nurture children. Adopted children are more likely to live in a safe, secure environment because their adoptive parents have had extensive background checks, including criminal, court and child abuse and neglect checks. Adoptive parents have great respect for birth mothers who place their children for adoption. They know that birth mothers love their children and recognize the courage it takes for birth mothers to make an adoption plan for their children.
Adoption Myth 3: Adopted Children Are Angry with Their Birth Mothers
Prospective birth mothers often worry that their children will be angry with them for having made an adoption plan and placed them with an adoptive family. They wonder if their children might feel abandoned and even hate them. Fortunately, the reality is very different.
As they get older, most adopted children understand that their birth mothers made a tremendous sacrifice to ensure that they had the best possible life with a family which could provide them with what they needed. They know their birth mothers could have chosen abortion or parented them in difficult and, sometimes desperate, circumstances. They respect their birth mothers’ decision and love them because they acted responsibly and placed their children’s needs before their own.
Adoption Myth 4: Adopted Children Are Not Well Adjusted
Adopted children are as happy and well-adjusted as children who are raised by their biological parents. Even children who are adopted in their toddler, pre-school, or school-age years can be happy and well-adjusted adults. Adoption is not an obstacle to happiness, success, or living life to its fullest. In today’s world, it is commonly accepted that adoptive parents will tell their children that they were chosen. Adoptive parents often tell their child the story of the birth mother’s loving choice to make an adoption plan. They assure their children that they are loved by both their adoptive and biological parents.
Forms
Visit our Forms page to download and print forms to help you get started in the adoption process.Adoptive Parent Profiles
Visit our Parents Profiles page to read about some of our prospective adoptive parents.