Keys to a Successful Adoption: A [Mini] Tutorial

If I could sit down across the table with every adoptive family over a mug of coffee and give them advice on the adoption process, this would be it:

Be ready and available

I rarely meet a couple who has never thought about adoption for their own family. In fact, most people I know tell me they've seriously considered it, but have yet to take the important first steps. Then they hear about a need, and are unable to walk into it simply because they haven't prepared. You have to make yourself ready for adoption for it to happen. This mean taking the steps to become home study ready and making a down payment with your heart and your money.  God can't use families if they're not available.  

Be a part of a team

You can't go it alone. Adoption requires community. Adoption is a complex process of home studies, profile creation, legal paperwork, and applications. Finding the right professionals to help you is crucial; the right adoption consultant, home study and placing agency, social workers, and attorneys often means the success or failure of an adoption. But on top of having the right adoption professionals, also surround yourself with a team of friends and family who will help with the emotions, fiances, and logistics of your adoption. Going down the road with others who share your vision and prayerfully support you will enable you to confidently walk out what God has called you to.

Be open and flexible

Adoption is a constant tension of having a plan and a vision and being ready for God to change it at a moments notice. This week I got a call from one of my clients who learned about their baby Sunday and met him Tuesday. Their plans for the week changed dramatically. Adoption almost never happens as you "plan" it. Roadblocks come up. Emergency calls are received. But if you have a heart that has been open and available to God and are a part of a team wisely built, God does amazing things in the chaos of moments.

Babies are born.  And families are ready to embrace them.

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