Which is the Right Adoptive Family for Me?
By Edward Harding
If you are pregnant and considering adoption, chances are you’ll be wondering how to best find the adoptive family for your child. Fortunately, It’s never been a better time to choose Adoption in Colorado. We are a judgment-free, private adoption agency licensed in Colorado. We understand that placing a baby for adoption can be hard. You may even be wrestling with strong feelings of guilt or anxiety surrounding where your child will end up. These are certainly valid concerns. Every parent wants the best for their child.
At Adoption Choices of Colorado, we believe that the best way to combat these feelings is through education and shared experience. We’ve served hundreds of birth mothers across the state and have gathered some testimonies from them to aid your decision.
If you need adoption help now, please call or text us at 303-670-4673 (HOPE) or visit us at Adoption Choices of Colorado.
Adoptive Families Hoping to Adopt in Colorado
The world is a diverse place. Therefore, there are many potential families that you may consider as a candidate to raise your child. First, consider what kind of home environment you wish them to have. Is diversity important to you? What about potential siblings? Would you like your child to have fellow children to interact with? These are just some of the many questions you should consider when considering narrowing the pool of applicants and profiles.
Here are some of the most common types of families that various adoption agencies typically accept.
- Traditional family- Mother\ Father
- Transracial family
- Transcultural family
- LGBTQ+ family
- Multiracial family
- Military family
- Single Parent
How to Find a Match During the Adoption Process
The matching process begins after you construct an adoption plan with a professional. This will outline your specific desires for potential families. Potential families will also have constructed a plan during the home study process. Home studies are collaborative informational sessions conducted by the agency. The adoptive family will share their reasons for seeking adoption and their preferences while providing information about themselves to the agency. This information will then be collected into a profile of the waiting family. After comparing your own preferences to potential applicants, your professional will then deduce suitable applicants for your deliberation.
Once you’ve been presented with profiles, it’s up to you whether you would like to move forward. Don’t feel pressured to choose any of the options. You may find that you would like to wait for another potential applicant that better aligns with your needs. Alternatively, you can also choose multiple families to match with and learn more about each before making a final decision. You may even find a family more appealing after meeting with them face to face.
However, you may also choose strictly to decide based on profiles alone. Once you choose a family to match, your own profile will be exchanged with them, and they will be informed of your decision.
How can Open Adoption make my decision easier?
Adoption Choices of Colorado encourages open adoption between birth mothers and adoptive parents. This type of adoption allows for as much contact between both parties as possible. You can meet the family and stay in contact with your child and parents after placement. Open adoption allows you to still remain a part of your child’s life even after relinquishing care. Additionally, it helps you build personal trust in your chosen adoptive family.
The extent of open adoption is usually mutually agreed upon by all parties involved. The adoptive agency does not enforce the criteria. However, if you would like to guarantee continued contact, the state of Colorado can issue a Post Placement Contact Agreement. This ensures continued contact under penalty of law.
How do birth mothers feel about choosing adoption in Colorado?
If you still have reservations about choosing Adoption Colorado, then listen to some of the testimonies from birth mothers who have worked with our Kansas branch. Birth mother, Jessica, commented on her decision to choose an openly gay couple as her adoptive family. She enjoyed allowing them to be parents. Without adoption, they would never have that chance. Seeing others happy allowed her to better process the grief associated with adoption.
Birth mother, Amber, echoed this opinion. Her adoptive family had difficulty conceiving children of their own. However, through adoption, Amber alleviated this pain while providing a happy life for her son. Amber also stressed the importance of thinking about your decision thoroughly beforehand. “Make sure you’re comfortable with it. That way, you don’t have any regrets in the end. You’ll know that you did the right thing, and it kind of just feels right in your heart.”
This isn’t to say that your journey won’t be difficult. Birth mother, Cassie, discussed many of the internal struggles she still deals with in her day-to-day life. For example, despite knowing that she made the right choice, it still causes her pain that she is not able to provide for her sons.
Hopefully, learning about the journeys of others helped you to feel more confident in your own decisions. Adoption Choices of Colorado believes that openness for all parties is key to making the adoption process as painless as possible. Therefore, we offer post-placement counseling services to all birth mothers at any stage of the adoption process. These programs can help you to deal with internal grief if desired by sharing experiences with others.
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.
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!