Questions for Private Adoption Agencies

Here are some suggestions for questions to ask private agencies:


1) What will be the total cost?
            A) Who will pay the expectant mother’s medical expenses?
            B) What personal expenses for the expectant mother will we be required to pay?
            C) How will the funds for the expectant parent's expenses be managed?
            D) Will you give us an itemized statement of costs? When?
            E) What fees are expected to be paid right now? When are additional fees due?
            F) What will happen to our money if the adoption does not work out?


2) Will you accept a home study from LDS Family Services? Will this decrease our fees?


3) Was the expectant mother married when she conceived or during the pregnancy?
            A) Will her husband sign relinquishment documents?
            B) If not, how will the legal father's rights be terminated?


4) How will the putative/alleged father’s rights be terminated?
            A) When will that be done?
            B) Is there the possibility of more than one putative/alleged father?


5) Are there any Indian Child Welfare issues? If so, how will they be resolved?


6) When will we get a copy of the expectant parent’s social and health history?
            A) What do you know about the social and health history of the expectant parents?
            B) What race(s) are the expectant parents?
            C) What are their medical and emotional issues?
            D) Are they using or have they used drugs, tobacco, or alcohol?


7) Is the expectant mother a resident of this state, or is she coming to this state to give birth or place the child for adoption?
            A) What states are involved and which state laws will be used to terminate birth parent rights?
            B) When will she come to the state?
            C) What are the legal implications of this to us?
            D) Will the agency comply with the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC)?


8) How will ICPC be handled if it is an interstate placement? (LDS Family Services does not provide ICPC services for adoptions not completed through our agency).


9) Are there any other legal issues?
            A) What are they?
            B) How will they be resolved?
            C) What will the agency do if the adoption is contested by a biological parent?


10) When do we need to hire an attorney?


11) Who will do the required supervisory visits? (In some situations, after the placing agency consults with the appropriate adoption manager about the situation, and with the adoption group manager’s permission, LDS Family Services may be able to provide supervisory visits. These are charged at the current counseling rate per hour.)


12) If correspondence and boundary issues arise during and after the pregnancy, who will help us manage them?


13) What type of counseling has the birth mother had? How much? Do the birth parents have access to post-placement counseling? Is that part of our fee?

Online Adoption Training May 22

I apologize that this is such late notice. My family has been sick, so I have been a little behind. Here is information for some online adoption training:

The online adoption training “Entering the Adoption World” will be held on Tuesday May 22^nd from 6-7 pm. Connection information is provided below. To receive credit for adoption training hours, you will be asked to send an email to Amy Curtis curtisa@ldschurch.org at the conclusion of the workshop.  

There is still time for people to register so feel free to forward this invitation. If you have questions about the workshop or you want to register, please contact Amy Curtis and             (801) 240-6528       or curtisa@ldschurch.org.

CONNECTION INFORMATION:

Topic: Online Adoption Training

Host: Benjamin Erwin

Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Time: 5:00 pm, Mountain Daylight Time (Denver, GMT-06:00)

Session number: 924 022 902

Session password: This session does not require a password.

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To join the training session

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1. Go to https://ldschurch.webex.com/ldschurch/k2/j.php?ED=194546167&UID=1379563517&HMAC=b9700ef3503b772daa5ef58c9909f14a5b2fe74f&RT=MiM2.

2. Enter your name and email address (or registration ID).

3. Enter the session password: This session does not require a password.

4. Click "Join Now".

5. Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.

To view in other time zones or languages, please click the link

https://ldschurch.webex.com/ldschurch/k2/j.php?ED=194546167&UID=1379563517&ORT=MiM2&HMAC=b9700ef3503b772daa5ef58c9909f14a5b2fe74f

Waiting Infants

Spence Chapin is an adoption agency in New York. They have a waiting infants site for children that don't match with couples from their agency. Check the site as the available children change often. Here is the link:

http://www.spence-chapin.org/adoption-programs/b1h_waiting_children.php

Children from "Hard Places"

We talked a little about adopting waiting children or adopting through foster care at our mini-conference on April 21. Faline sent me a link to the Institute of Child Development at TCU. Karyn Purvis is the director of the Institute and there is a lot of great information on the website. Karyn Purvis also presented at last year's National FSA Conference. I put the link under Adoption Sites on the right of the blog. It is titled, "Karen Purvis".

Adoption Tax Credit

Here is the link to information about the Federal Adoption Tax Credit for 2012 and 2013:

http://www.nacac.org/taxcredit/taxcredit20122013.html

Also, check the post below for information on our new Facebook page! There is a link on that to a more detailed page on the tax credit.

Facebook Group

First off, thank you to everyone who came and participated in our first activity of the year! It was so great to meet everyone and we look forward to more events in the future.

I just created a group on Facebook titled, "Houston Families Supporting Adoption". I thought this could be an easy way to talk to one another and throw out ideas for activities we want to do. It is also an easy way to let me know what you'd like to see on the blog. So if you have a Facebook account, come on over and "like" us. I will start posting things and please feel free to post things too! I will keep posting on the blog as well so don't worry if you don't have a Facebook account!

Childcare for Mini-Conference

There will be childcare for this upcoming Saturday, April 21. We are very excited and looking forward to meeting many of you this Saturday at the Mini-Conference!