Adoptive Families Blog

Many adoptive families fear relationships with their child’s birth family. They are unsure of how it will impact their relationship with their child. Patricia Dischler, author of Because I Loved You, helps adoptive parents understand what it means to have a relationship with their child’s birth family. Today, over 90% of domestic adoptions are open adoptions, with relationships between birth families and adoptive children.

Each year thousands of couples are able to realize the joy of parenthood through adoption. During the adoption process, fees are due for services like obtaining a home study, facilitating a match with a birth mother, and legal representation.

In addition to adoption fees, there are expenses such as the cost to create and print adoption profiles, hospital costs, birth-related expenses, and the costs associated with adoption travel (flights, fuel, lodging, etc.)

Fortunately, there are several financing and funding resources available, providing the route to adoption at a reasonable cost. Obtaining an adoption loan makes adoption feasible for many couples who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it. With an adoption loan, you can typically enjoy access to the funds you need right away!

Oftentimes, Lifetime connects with adoptive couples in the midst of their route to parenthood, at a crossroad where loss meets the possibility for positive things ahead through adoption. In this post, Lifetime mom, Lisa, shares how she and her husband Frank moved from infertility to adoption.

In this family’s story, we hear how Frank and Lisa moved through their adoption wait to a match and embraced the opportunity open adoption gave them to develop a friendship with their daughter’s birth parents.

Choosing adoption to grow your family can be overwhelming at first since there's so much to learn and to do. Before you can think of yourselves as officially hoping to adopt, there are steps, terms, and questions that every future adoptive parent needs to understand to reach their adoption dream successfully.

If you'd like to adopt in 2019, here are six things you need to be doing right now:

When you've decided that adoption is the way you'll grow your family, sometimes it's hard to know when to start the adoption process. Many hopeful adoptive parents wonder if there’s a perfect time to begin their adoption journey. There’s no better time than right now to begin the path towards adopting the baby you’ve been praying for!

Here are the top 5 reasons why it's beneficial to begin your adoption journey before the New Year:

Typically, the holidays are a time for celebration and joyful moments. But when you're waiting to chosen by a birth mother, they might be a source of stress. Your loved ones may mean well, but ask questions or make remarks that feel hurtful or insensitive. If you dread the holidays, it can help to hear from those who have "been there, done that."

Last year during the Christmas season, we asked seasoned adoptive parents: What would you tell a hopeful adoptive parent as they go through this holiday season to encourage them while they wait? What worked for you in Christmases when you were waiting to grow your family? Or what do you wish you'd have done to help the season be lighter? Today, we’re sharing their answers with you!

Earlier this year, adoptive couple Derek and Jennifer were blessed to adopt a baby boy through Lifetime. In this family’s story, we hear from Jennifer about receiving "the call," the bond they've established with their son Elijah's birth mother, and their experience with becoming parents together through an open adoption.

Now a forever family, adoptive mom Jennifer shares their beautiful story in this special guest blog post!

Because we live on the West Coast, I wasn't surprised to hear my cell phone ring as the sun began to rise over the mountains.

As I pulled my phone closer and tried to focus my blurry eyes, I saw the call was coming from Grass Valley, California. I held my breath as I answered knowing that Lifetime Adoption called with "good news" outside of business hours. My husband and I listened to the voice on the other end of the phone intently. She spoke of a birth mother who chose us to raise the precious child growing inside of her. We listened carefully to every word and detail and soon learned a baby boy was due in just over three weeks.

Melissa perched on the edge of the sofa, with a cup of hot coffee in her hands. She grabbed her tablet and started to eagerly browse her adoption agency's website, something that she did every morning before work. As she did, Melissa began to feel defeated. Looking at all the smiling faces of other couples waiting to adopt, she wondered to herself, "How will we stand out from the other couples? What would make a birth mother pick us to be the parents of her child? How can we compete with so many couples who are more attractive, more educated, or wealthier?"

Does this scenario sound familiar? Many hopeful adoptive parents can relate to the fear that a birth mother won't pick them. Struggling with jealousy and frustration during the adoption wait is normal.  Lifetime hopes to clarify the open adoption process and provide you with some bottom line facts about being picked by a birth mother.

Recently one of Lifetime’s adoptive moms introduced us to author Melissa Radke’s book, Eat Cake. Be Brave., a personal testimony of faith, courage, accepting one’s strengths and unique path in life, including infertility, miscarriage, and adoption. In Chapter 19, Dear Miss Danielle, we were moved to read Radke’s heartfelt letter to her daughter’s birth mother. This real-life encounter with modern adoption, as seen through an everyday adoptive mom (with a great sense of humor and ability to share words as if you’re talking with a friend), will speak to so many of our followers and families.

If you’re a hopeful adoptive parent, or if you’re already raising a child through adoption, you’ll be touched by this excerpt from Chapter 19 of Eat Cake. Be Brave. Perhaps you’ll identify with the hard emotions each side of a child’s adoption face as they come together for a match. Or you’ll anticipate the great love that you’ll have for the ONE mother who chooses you to adopt her baby, and how you hope you can find just the right words to tell her how much she means to your family, how much you admire her brave love. You might even read this as a birth mother, and be reassured that you are not forgotten, and some of the brightest things about your child will remind his or her adoptive parents of you in the best ways.

Because of modern adoption, a child can grow up knowing that she inherits good things from both sides of her story.

With permission from Melissa and David Radke, we are honored to share this letter to her daughter's birth mother excerpt from Eat Cake. Be Brave. with you below.

It's that time of year when showing gratitude and giving thanks is on the top of everyone's minds. Many times, Thanksgiving encourages us to think about the special things in our lives and express gratitude for them. It's a favorite holiday for many, as they're surrounded by loved ones and reminded of all that they have to be grateful for.

Whether you're in a season of hope or one of challenges, remember that you have been given "every spiritual blessing in Christ,"  in the words of Ephesians 1:3. Despite whatever challenges you're facing during your adoption journey, you can have an attitude of thankfulness.

The heart of Thanksgiving is expressing your gratitude. But in the midst of all the Thanksgiving meal prep and the tryptophan naps, it can be hard to figure out how to make time for that! Here are 8 creative ideas to refocus the thankful season and show gratitude: