Child Adoption

Sadly, some children and teenagers, for a number of reasons, don’t have the opportunity to grow up with their birth families. Through no fault of their own, and sometimes even through no fault of their parents, these children are in need of a family. Fortunately, some people choose to open up their homes to these children and take them in as one of their own. Through child adoption, children who would otherwise be at risk of facing a bleak existence have the opportunity to be brought up in loving, stable, and secure homes. Generally, the children whose birth parents cannot properly meet their needs are connected with loving families looking to adopt children through adoption agencies. There basically two different types of adoption and adoption agencies in the US; one gives at-risk children the opportunity to be adopted after their parents have been judged unfit, the other is for children voluntarily put up for adoption by their birth parents.
The Foster care system typically receives funding from the federal government. Foster care enables children who have suffered abuse or neglect to find new, adoptive families. These are children whose parents were judged unfit to keep them, and were removed from their parents’ custody for their own safety. Children in the foster care system are waiting for—and hoping for—the opportunity to be adopted. There are over 100,000 children in the Foster care system in dire need of the opportunity to have the kind of loving family most of us take for granted. They are wards of the state until worthy families are found for them.
The government funding also covers the cost of the adoption process, sparing the adoptive parents these expenses. Sometimes there is even funding available for the adoptive parents on an ongoing basis, called a subsidy. It is typically a relatively small sum, and is paid monthly to the adoptive family every month. This is to help the adoptive family provide fro the child’ needs, at least until the reach 18 years old.
Children offered voluntarily for adoption by their birth parents are another matter entirely. Generally, these are children who were born as a result of unplanned pregnancy, where the parents don’t feel capable of providing for the children’s needs and future. These are arranged through private adoption agencies. The government does not fund these adoptions and therefore the expenses of the process will be borne by the adoptive family. There is, however, a federal tax deduction for $10,160 that can be claimed during the year in which the child’s adoption is finalized. The adoption is considered final six months after the child is placed in the adoptive parents’ care. Some private adoption agencies offer prospective parents the opportunity to adopt American children while others offer Americans the opportunity to adopt unwanted children from other parts of the world.
The adoption process it tightly regulated, and adoptive parents are required to undergo a process that includes educational preparation and training, a series of background checks and a series of interviews. For many adoptive parents, and certainly for many adopted children, it’s more than worth it.