There are many ways to adopt a newborn. Which one is the cheapest and fastest?
If infertility treatments wiped out your savings and stole some of best years of your life, chances are you don’t want to go through another heartbreaking experience like that.
You want to start a family right away through adoption and you don’t want any more roadblocks to get in your way.
The thing about adopting a baby, though, is that there is no one right way to do it—no cheap and easy route. But there are many wrong ways.
And focusing solely on the timeline and cost could get you into trouble if, for instance, you jump into a situation too soon or take a shortcut on the wrong things.
Yes, if you’re looking for an adoption match, there are ways to save money. And yes, there are ways to adopt faster.
If you find an expectant parent considering adoption through word of mouth, you could do both. But most people don’t find a baby to adopt that way.
They do it through agencies or adoption specialists or on their own. Sometimes they find a match right away. But usually it takes months or even years.
As your start your quest to build your family through adoption, keep in mind that every child deserves to know his story. What story will you tell yours? Will it be one that you can be proud of?
If you’re looking to adopt a newborn lovingly and ethically with the potential to do it quicker and for less, read on.
There are different steps in adopting a newborn. They include
- home study
- creating a parent profile
- networking your profile
- connecting with an expectant mother to find an adoption match
- counseling and legal work
- placement and finalization
If you’re looking at working with an agency, they’ll take care of everything for you. And while they are reliable and can be easy to work with, they’re not always the fastest or the cheapest.
Try Independent Adoption Process
Apart from word-of-mouth the best way to save money and time is to do it on your own through what’s called an independent adoption. In an independent adoption, you’re in charge…of everything, From the home study to the finalization, you coordinate every aspect of it. And that includes finding a match with expectant parents.
Finding a match is probably the most unpredictable part of the newborn adoption process. Sometimes it happens right away. Sometimes it take years.
A lot will depend on how many people you tell about your desire to adopt as well as how strong your profile is and where you network it.
Create An Adoption Profile
An adoption profile is a printed or digital document that hopeful parents create to tell their story about themself and their reasons for adopting. It includes information about all aspects of their lives: them and their family, their neighborhood, and their thoughts about parenting and adoption.
The more appealing a profile is, the better odds you’ll have of making a connection with a woman who is making an adoption plan due to an unintended pregnancy. And the more places you network it, the better chance you’ll have of getting an expectant parent to find it.
There are different places to share it. Before Covid-19, hopeful parents shared their profile not only with family and friends, but also with just about everyone they knew. But now, with all of the social distancing restrictions and lockdown, that’s not as easy to do anymore.
As a result, more waiting parents are taking their quest to find a match online. They’re creating social media accounts, websites, blogs, and ads to get the word out.
Share Your Profile
Any of these tools can help you find a match. They key is deciding which one’s right for you.
If you like social media and don’t mind posting regular updates about yourself or your adoption journey, Instagram and Facebook are great places to connect with people and increase your exposure.
If your tech savvy and like to write, a personal website or blog may be a good fit.
If you’re looking for a cost-effective and easy to use platform, an adoption self-matching site like America Adopts! may be a good bet for you. And of course, you could do a combo of any of these options—or something else.
Since you run the show in an independent adoption, you decide which online tools or platforms work are best for you.
How Parent Profile Sites Work
An adoption self-matching site like America Adopts! will expand your reach instantly and requires no technical skills or marketing muscle. The site does it all for you.
If you join one, you’ll share space with other couples and singles hoping to adopt. Instead of creating your own website from scratch, you create a profile by uploading your adoption letter, photos and contact info onto a template.
Self-matching (also known as an adoption profile) sites have different ways of getting the word out about you to expectant mothers. Mostly it’s through Google searches, ads, social media and sponsored posts.
Once an expectant mother visits the site, she will browse through the profiles and click on the couple or waiting parent that interests her. If she’s interested in your profile, she has the option to reach out to you directly to learn more or make a connection.
Adoption Matches Are Complicated
Adoption self-matching sites can save you time and money if you find a match quickly. But you still need to go through the necessary legal steps to get the adoption finalized.
Finding a match on your own could have some advantages over doing it through an agency. Just remember, there are no guarantees with any route you choose. If the match is complicated because of legal or medical issues or you fall prey to a scammer it could end up costing rather than saving money.
And that’s just the financial cost. The emotional fall-out from a failed match is harder to calculate.
Know When To Take Shortcuts
While it’s tempting to take shortcuts when it comes to dealing with the expectant parent, that’s the one place you shouldn’t do it. If you want to save time and money do it during the home study stage, when things are more straightforward and predictable. Preparing all of your documents and clearances in advance will help you get a jump on it.
Once you find a match, though, you want to be careful and ethical. Providing the expectant parents with their own independent legal representation is crucial. If you take shortcuts with their counseling and the expectant parents back out later because they didn’t fully understand what they are getting into, it could end up costing you big-time.
Remember, adoption is a lifelong event. It’s not just about getting a baby or being a parent. Treat your child’s parents with fairess and respectf is non-negotiable. If they sense that you’re only interested in their baby or in a cheap, fast adoption, they may start looking for other families or decide that placing their child isn’t for them.
So don’t start decorating the nursery or sign up with any baby register until all of the t’s are crossed and the i’s dotted in the adoption papers.
To recap, while there isn’t one cheap and quick way to adopt a newborn born, if you’re willing to take your search into your own hands there are ways to shorten your wait and economize.
Just be sure that when you go into the matching process, you gather up as much information as you can so that you know what to expect, and then proceed with your plan cautiously and ethically. Doing so will make your life less stressful now and allow you to one day look back on your journey with confidence and pride.
Learn more about our adoption profile plans or contact us for more information.