At Abrazo, every Texas adoption centers around children’s needs, first and foremost. The process starts when a parent-to-be contacts our agency for help, of course. That may be a person with a crisis pregnancy or a child they feel unable to parent. Or it may be a couple with an infertility diagnosis who longs to become parents.

Either way, though, all the services Abrazo offers center around the need to meet a child’s best interests. And whether your Texas adoption centers around a baby being born in Dallas/Ft. Worth, in Houston, in San Antonio, in El Paso, in Austin, in Corpus Christi or Texarkana or Odessa or Killeen or McAllen or anywhere else in the Lone Star State, Abrazo can be there to help you do it right.

How Do I Put A Child Up for Adoption?

Any expectant mom or parent or legal guardian can make a confidential adoption plan at Abrazo free of charge. All it takes to get started is a phone call (1-800-454-5683) or a text saying HELPME, sent to 210-860-5683. Abrazo helps pregnant persons making placement plans for a baby not yet born as well as adoption plans for already-born babies, children or sibling groups, and the process can generally be completed in whatever time frame the placing parent wishes. 

Our counselors are easy to talk with. They help those considering adoption understand their options and their rights. They arrange needed services like prenatal care, housing, food, clothing, basic utilities and transportation to maternity appointments, when needed.

Placing parents at Abrazo have the right to choose their child’s adoptive parents and to get to know them and meet them before placement, if they wish.  (And those who want the agency to select a family for their child because they fear open adoption would be too hard, Abrazo can make adoption plans that still allow for possible future contact, down the road.)

How Can We Adopt a Baby?

There are, by most estimates, more than 50 adoptive couples hoping to adopt every one baby being placed for adoption nowadays. Additionally, the majority of children in America who most need to be adopted are not infants nor toddlers, but school-aged children and teens, most of whom are warehoused in state foster care. They’re already free for adoption, literally and figuratively, and just waiting for someone to open their hearts and homes to them.

So that being said, please check out the Heart Gallery of America first. Think long and hard about it. Not everyone is suited to a special needs adoption, or adopting a teen or sibling groups, we know. Still, babies aren’t “easier,” and they’re not “more available” nor “less expensive to adopt,” either. And when Texas adoption centers around children’s needs instead of adult dreams, it means doing everything possible to meet kids’ best interests first–and parental whims last. 

For those with documented infertility who are seeking to adopt babies in need of adoptive homes, please research all you can about relevant topics upfront. Familiarizing yourself with adoptee perspectives will shed light on effects like the primal wound, rejection and abandonment, and the importance of genetic mirroring, all of which illustrate the need for open adoption arrangements. The majority of babies we see placed for adoption in South Texas are likely to be of mixed ethnicity, and subject to limited prenatal care and possible substance exposure. Texas laws are generally known as being “adoption-friendly,” but understanding those laws in advance is also an important part of the process.

Everybody Wins When Texas Adoption Centers Around Children’s Needs

When a Texas adoption is centered around the needs of the child/ren being adopted, the placement benefits the child first, but everyone else, as well. Texas adoptions done right are adoptions everyone can take pride in, because there’s no question who it was done for.

The child/ren had an opportunity to understand and adapt to the arrangements being made on their behalf. The child/ren got the stable and permanent home he/she/they deserved, and post-adoption support, as well. And all the parents involved had the preparation they needed to do right by the child/ren, before and after the placement. Informed decisions were made, and the best of services (casework, counseling and legal) have been provided to everyone.

Adoption isn’t ever a simple nor easy commitment. It is a child-centered, lifelong covenant, when done properly. As one Abrazo adoptee explained it, “I have two moms and two dads who will always love me!” Everyone wins, whenever a Texas adoption centers around children’s needs, and no adoption should happen any other way.