6 Important Things to Put into Your Adoption Plan in Colorado
So, you’re a birth mother facing an unplanned pregnancy and considering adoption. You’ve begun to research what this may look like for you and have come across the concept of creating an adoption plan more than once. From what you can tell, this is an important part of your adoption journey, and will help map out your expectations. Yet, what exactly does an adoption plan entail?
Adoption Choices of Colorado is here to provide you with the answer! An adoption plan is indeed a beneficial portion of your adoption journey, and we want you to feel confident and empowered as you place your baby for adoption. That’s why we have compiled this resource of the important things to put in your adoption plan as a birth mother. Please know that the following items are only meant to give you options. It’s entirely your choice what to include and what’s most important to you.
- Location, Location
Considering whether you desire your child to grow up in the city, country or suburbs is one thing you may choose to include in your adoption plan. Each option has its own share of pros and cons. For instance, cities often provide more opportunities for children and adults alike, such as museums, parks, jobs and good schools. Yet, there can be downsides to living in a city as well.
Living in the country may also give your child lots of opportunities, like getting to know their community well and spending time outside in clean air. The suburbs could offer a sense of community as well, and allow your child to grow up in a neighborhood where they could make many friends. So, it’s important to think through each choice to see what would best fit your ideals for your child. If you need help deciding, once you meet your child’s adoptive parents, you can ask them what they like about living where they do.
- Education
If you feel that education is important and something you hope that your child pursues as they grow up, you may want to consider adding this into your adoption plan. This may go hand-in-hand with location with what types of schools are around, or looking for prospective adoptive parents who feel the same way you do about education in general. It may also mean considering which schools — whether public or private — offer more electives and advanced classes.
- Community
While this certainly overlaps with location and education, this can also be an important item to include in your adoption plan and to ask your child’s potential adoptive parents about. Is their friend group diverse? Do they regularly hang out with people of different backgrounds? Are they well-versed in conversations about members of minorities?
These types of questions may be particularly important if you are considering a transracial adoption, or of a different race, ethnicity or culture yourself. Transracial adoptees have reported that having a community and extended family of adult supports who understood and shared their racial and cultural background was crucial to them feeling confident in their identity.
- Values
Are there any particular values you hope your child grows up with? Why or why not? Determining what values are important to you can help your adoption caseworker select the best prospective adoptive parents for you to consider. If the specific values aren’t listed in the adoptive parent profile books, but they check other boxes, you can ask them about their family and personal values once you all meet. Knowing that you are placing your child with adoptive parents who align with your own values can be reassuring and comforting to many birth mothers.
- Hospital Plan
Another one of the important things to put in your adoption plan is your hospital plan. This includes any personal wishes regarding your child’s birth and your stay in the hospital. Some birth mothers want their child’s adoptive parents to be with them at the hospital, while others enjoy having this moment just to themselves or with their own family members/loved ones. You may wish to immediately place your child in the care of their adoptive parents, or you may decide that you want a few hours alone with your baby before completing the formal relinquishment paperwork.
This portion of your adoption plan, however, isn’t as set in stone as the rest of it. If, on the day of, you change your mind about what you want, your adoption caseworker can arrange it for you. We just encourage you to have an idea written down, so that you feel comfortable about your hospital experience and know what to expect.
- Ongoing Contact
One of the very first things your adoption caseworker will ask you about when you’re creating your adoption plan is how involved you’d like to be in your child’s life after the adoption has been finalized. Do you want to stay in contact? Have a relationship with them? Do you want to meet and get to know your child’s adoptive parents? Each and every birth mother is different, and that’s completely okay. It’s still important to consider all of your options and think about what you want.
You will have three different levels of openness, or types of adoption, to choose from: open, semi-open and closed. How you answered the above questions and others that are similar will determine which amount of involvement will be best for you and your child. If you want to have a relationship with your child and their adoptive parents, you will get the opportunity to discuss boundaries and how life will look with you all after the adoption has been finalized.
Important Things to Put into Your Adoption Plan
As aforementioned, the items listed above are only meant as guidelines as you begin your adoption journey. Adoption Choices of Colorado is able to help you customize your adoption plan that best fits the needs and requirements you have for your child. There are many other things that you can include that we haven’t talked about here as well. Be sure to consult with your adoption caseworker on all of your available options.
If you are facing an unplanned pregnancy and are considering adoption, we are here to help you in any way we can and will walk with you every step of the way. Our goal is to provide the most positive and empowering adoption journey possible, and to help you find a loving adoptive family for your child.
If you are facing an unplanned pregnancy and want to learn more about your adoption options, contact Adoption Choices of Colorado by email, phone, or text: Email Us, Text us: 720-371-1099, Call us: 303-670-4673 (HOPE). If you are hoping to adopt, please contact us here.
Meet the Author: Kara Bringewatt is an English major and psychology minor at Queens University of Charlotte. She plans to get her masters in social work and work at a nonprofit as a case manager for at-risk youth. She loves using writing as a means of creating community and bringing attention to causes she’s passionate about.
Kara is particularly interested in educational and mental health interventions for young people in foster care. She’s worked as a tutor, professional caregiver, preschool teacher and acting instructor, and loves being able to utilize her wide range of passions to support young people and plans on being a foster and adoptive parent.
Stephanie joined the Adoption Choices family in 2014 as the Child Placement Supervisor. Her love for adoption began in first grade when she made friends with twins adopted from Vietnam. Her heart grew strong over the years for adopted children and ultimately led her to graduate school where she continued her focus to her dream of working in the adoption field. Stephanie earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver in 2001. Over the past 15 years, Stephanie has worked as a pregnancy counselor and as an adoptive parent counselor for foster care, international adoption and domestic adoption, writing hundreds of home studies for families, and helping build their forever families. Stephanie is married and has three boys ages 12, 9, and 5. Together with her family she enjoys riding bike, playing games, watching her three sons compete in their various sporting and musical activities and go on vacations.
Christy Ikeler, is our Executive Director and Birth Parent Director. Christy has been with Adoption Choices Team for 18 years, since opening the doors in 2002! Christy has a true passion for what she does and her true love is working with and helping each birth parent. Whether she is up all night on the phone talking with them, taking them to doctors appointments, out for their favorite treat, providing counseling or at the hospital during labor and delivery, Christy is very involved every step of the way. She has a contagious laugh and a spunky personality that our birth moms all can bond with and relate to. As an adoptive parent herself, adoption holds a very special place in her heart and she can relate on every level with both birth parents and adoptive parents. In her free time Christy loves spending time with her daughter, gardening, baking and taking vacations with her family. Christy is an excellent leader for our team at Adoption Choices and is truly one of a kind!! As Executive Director, Christy spends time with the staff, birth parents and adoptive families in order to ensure that the agency is running smoothly. She has placed a huge emphasis on community outreach and programs for birth parents. Christy loves the opportunity to lead the agency into a brighter future.
Ms. Mackenzie has built a successful counseling career over the past 20 years, supporting mothers and families, people of all ages and genders, students, community professionals and fellow clinicians. Liv values a diverse professional focus, including the entrepreneurial life of a sole proprietor, the evaluative process of certifying foster/adoptive homes, the insightful and mindful one-on-one one work with enthusiastic clients, and serving as an advocate for underserved populations. Liv is a Licensed Professional Counselor and holds a BA in Pre-Law and Economics from American University, an MA in Counseling from Adams University and a certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University. Away from work you will find Liv spending time in nature, biking to the farmer’s market and adventuring with her family.
Catherine A. Madsen, joined the Adoption Choices family as legal counsel in 2013. Catherine is responsible for providing legal guidance to the Agency, training and updating staff on developments in adoption law and legislation, and program development. Catherine
Virginia Frank is an adoption attorney accredited since 1991 with the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. Ms. Frank is a leader in the field of private adoption and has completed over 4,000 adoptions in her career. Ms. Frank has a law degree from Oklahoma City University and a BA in both Political Science and Communications from the University of Oklahoma.
Cassidie has been with Adoption Choices since 2015, she has her bachelors in Interdisciplinary Affairs with concentrations in both Sociology and Business Management. Cassidie has additional training in Victim Advocacy, foster care and has been working in women’s services for over 10 years. Cassidie has always had a heart for adoption and it was her career dream to work in adoption. She started off doing volunteer work for advocacy programs, adoption organizations and worked in High Risk Maternal Fetal Medicine through the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Cassidie is also blessed to have personally experienced an adoption of her own in 2012, completing her family of five! Cassidie loves what she does as a case worker from initial phone calls, meetings, doctor appointments, interaction with the adoptive families to delivery and counseling. Cassidie has a passion for those in need and strives to help make a difference in the lives of the people she meets. She is a firm believer in being kind, compassionate and open minded in all situations. “Unless you’ve walked in their shoes, there’s no place for judgment. A kind word or compliment can go a long way!” The bittersweet moments in adoption reminds Cassidie each and every time, why she loves what she does!