It’s not often that nonprofit adoption agencies seek to advertise “great parents needed”… after all, there are a reported 100 prospective adoptive couples awaiting every ONE infant placed for adoption nowadays.
But anybody can seek to adopt a baby, given the ease of misrepresenting one’s qualifications on social media. Unlicensed baby brokers online run ads nationwide. Hopeful adopters post “baby wanted” pitches begging
“help us adopt” without ever having even had a background check or a homestudy done. And unethical adoption attorneys and sleazy adoption agencies sell their services for thousands of dollars to as many wannabe adopters as will pay their fees.
Best practice in adoption
The best adoption agencies don’t do that. Ethical adoption agencies like Abrazo carefully limit the number of approved adoptive families in an effort to not take in more couples than they can expect to place with in a reasonable amount of time. They (we) seek to help any placing parents who need services, regardless of whether they are pregnant, placing a newborn or needing a loving home for an older child and/or siblings. And they (we) work hard to keep their (our) fees reasonable, as well (which is why there’s more than a $30k difference between the agency fee at Abrazo and other/bigger agencies north of here. We could charge more… we just choose not to, because we want any additional resources spent on the children we place.
That’s why Abrazo is posting this blog entitled “Great Parents Needed.” Because we’re looking for a few great couples with documented infertility, stability, and a commitment to open adoption.
Supply vs demand
The reason Abrazo’s full-service program requires applicants to have documented infertility is not because fertile couples can’t be good parents. (Kudos, Captain Obvious,) Traditionally, great parents needed to just be willing to raise a child well, regardless of their reproductive function. And as adoption reformers remind us, adoption should only be about meeting children’s needs, and not about “servicing” infertile couples.
In an era in which the supply of adoptable babies is dwarfed by the demand for healthy newborns, it’s easy to assume that the quest to place infants with infertile couples is about giving the barren a chance to become parents. (Why shouldn’t they be first in line, some say?)
Yet our greater purpose is to ensure that the people adopting at Abrazo can truly empathize with the grief and loss of those being adopted– and with the grief of those who are placing here. The inherent losses of those with infertility and those involved in adoption are unique. Thus, we find that the shared elements of these experiences form a strong foundation for the open adoption plans that get launched here.
Great parents needed, because…
Historically, great parents needed great parents who set a good example for them. They needed a strong family family support system, a reasonable means of income, a safe home and a caring community. Young parents who had that rarely had any reason to abandon their babies or to adopt children out.
Sadly, that’s not the world in which most of us live, anymore. With growing issues in America like inflation and poverty, addiction, domestic abuse, rising housing costs and fewer two-parent families, more and more young parents (ages 20-40) are needing to give a child up for adoption. (Even if they are great parents themselves.) In a perfect world, adoption would not be needed. But presently. there seems to be a surge in mothers surrendering older kids as well as babies, and that’s why Abrazo now says “great parents needed.”
We’re not looking for just anyone. We’re looking for caring, compassionate couples who deserve to join a strong, proven open adoption community that has withstood the tests of time for 32 years, and has healthy, happy adoptees nationwide who can attest to this.
If you know someone hoping to adopt who measures up, please send them our way so we can help.
