 We're here for you.
-
From answering your very first question to helping you explore your adoption choices...and then helping you to become an adoptive parent.
- Experienced and supportive clinical social workers can help you build your family by adoption. You have the choice of a domestic or international adoption.
- Throughout the process, we provide educational workshops and supportive services that address the lifelong issues of adoption.
Pre-Adoption Planning
If you are wondering about adoption as a way to build your family, consider calling Adoption Choices. Dale Eldridge, LICSW, the Coordinator of Adoptive Parent Services, will meet with you for a free, confidential consultation and provide you with information about current adoption practices and relevant issues. This is an opportunity to review your options and plan a course of action. If you decide adoption is right for you, Dale and the other experienced, caring staff of Adoption Choices can help facilitate the adoption process. Home Studies
Home study meetings are the beginning of the growing relationship between Adoption Choices and the applicants. A social worker meets several times with the applicants, including once in their home, to review together topics such as their personal background, present lives, values, motivation to adopt, and preparedness for parenting. The dialogues are an opportunity for the applicants to increase their knowledge about and comfort with adoption issues. After the meetings, the social worker summarizes her findings and proposes a recommendation regarding the applicants' plan to become adoptive parents. This confidential report becomes part of the permanent adoption record.
Domestic Adoption
- Open adoptions permit adoptive parents and birth parents to meet each other and determine together the degree of ongoing contact both before and after adoptive placement.
- Parent-identified adoptions happen when adoptive families connect with birth parents through their own resources and then use the agency to facilitate the placement.
- Traditional agency adoptions take place when a Massachusetts birth parent comes to the agency to request help in making an adoption plan for her child and chooses the adoptive family from amongst our waiting families.
 International Adoption
We facilitate international adoptions of infants and children from many different countries. Partnerships with several highly respected international child placing adoption agencies enable our clients to adopt infants and older children from such countries as Bulgaria, China, Russia, Ethiopia, Korea, Colombia, India, Kazakhstan, Peru, Thailand, Republic of the Congo, and Nepal.
Adoption Choices has long standing partnerships with several international placement agencies with national reputations for ethical and child-centered practices.
Our partner agencies:
Child Placement
Adoption Choices places infants and children of all ethnic backgrounds who are born in the U.S. We also place infants, pre-schoolers, and school-age children from a variety of countries around the world who are of Eastern European, Asian, African, and Latino backgrounds. Some of the children may be part of a sibling group, and some children may have correctible medical problems.
Post-Placement Supervision & Legal Finalization
State law requires that a child reside with a family for at least six months prior to finalization of the adoption in Massachusetts probate court, during which time there must be regular contacts with an agency social worker. Some of these contacts will be home visits.
Finalization permanently transfers legal custody of the child from the agency to the adoptive parents. Massachusetts requires that all adoption finalizations be sponsored by a licensed agency. Adoption Choices will prepare a range of documents required by the court. Our sponsorship confirms our support of the adoption plan. Finalization of all domestic adoptions as well as re-finalization of international adoptions are a required part of the process.
Post-Adoption Counseling
Adoption is a life-long process. There will be times when those directly affected by the adoption may need specialized counseling services. Our clinicians have expertise in dealing with issues unique to the adoption experience, and we are available for consultation.
 On-going Support and Education Services
Adoption Choices is committed to providing opportunities for support and education to help our clients be the best possible adoptive parents they can be. Our family life education groups are tailored to meet the life-long needs of people whose lives are touched by adoption.
Our Parent Education Series includes groups on the following topics:
- Adoption Overview
- Birth Parents
- Adoptive Parent Panel
- Birth Parent Panel
- Open Adoptions
- Life Books
- Normal Developmental Stages of Childhood & Adoption Issues
- International Adoptions
- Infertility
- Grief and Loss Issues
- Adult Adopted Persons Panel
Frequently Asked Questions
How long will I have to wait for placement?
The average waiting period is twelve to eighteen months. It can be more or less. Much depends on the type of adoption envisioned. Our experienced staff can discuss your situation with you and help develop your vision of the type of adoption most suitable to you.
Is adoption expensive?
The fees depend on the type of adoption and the costs related to the individual situation. We offer a sliding fee scale in an effort to make the process more affordable.
What about single parent adoptions?
We provide services to both traditional and non-traditional families.
Is there a religious requirement?
No. We serve families of all religious and racial backgrounds.
For more questions please contact:
Dale Eldridge, LICSW, BCD
Coordinator, Adoptive Parent Services
508-875-3100 x150
deldridge@jfsmw.org |
