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Adoptive Parents
Dear Prospective Adoptive Family,
Welcome to our cyberspace office! We are currently accepting adoptive families from
Washington,
Idaho,
Oregon and
Montana. If you live in southern states, another Youth With A Mission adoption agency closer to you is
Living Alternatives
,
P.O. Box 131466,
Tyler,
TX
75713-1466
; email is:
livalt@ballistic.com
, and their website is
http://www.livalt.org/
.
You will want to know our history and philosophy, our financial structure and future plans. Some of these questions can be answered on the “
About Us
” page. The work of our ministry is threefold: to place children in homes where Christianity is freely expressed in all aspects of the adopting couple’s lives, to further the cause of the children in the foster care system, and to educate our community on adoption issues.
If you are inside Washington State, the
best way to get to know about us is to register for our
introduction class
.
Our next classes are
September 14th, and October 24
,
2006.
Contact us at 253 770-2283 or by email to sign up.
Pursuing adoption through Adoption Ministry is a simple five-step process:
-
Couples are required to attend our introduction class. We require that a couple be married at least 2 years.
If you desire to pursue adoption through our agency, you request an application packet.
After receiving your completed application, a private interview will be arranged. At the end of the interview, if you still feel led to pursue adoption with us, our Ministry Commitment will be explained to you.
-
Homestudy materials will be given to you to start your homestudy, and you will be scheduled to partake in foster training classes (even if you are not doing foster/adopt). Two classes,
Interracial Adoption
and
Open Communication with a Birth Family
, are also a required part of your training.
You will receive assistance in putting together a family photo profile.
The cost to pursue an adoption through Adoption Ministry is a $100.00 application fee ($150 out of WA state), a homestudy fee of $1000.00 to $1200.00, and whatever the attorney fees will be. Attorney fees vary depending on the complexity of the adoption. Adoption Ministry seeks to take the cost factor out of adoption.
We believe any family that has a sincere desire to build their family through adoption should be able to. But, as you well know, finances are necessary to run a ministry.
During the private interview time, we share with you a Ministry Commitment and ask that if you become part of our ministry family you commit to supporting our work. The commitment you make is an individual promise before God to our work.
All families are required to go through foster training. Youth For Christ partners with us in providing this training and they will also foster license any family that desires to pursue a foster-adopt situation. The majority of families want a healthy infant that looks just like they do. Reality is, however, there are more families wanting to adopt than there are healthy newborns. We encourage families to expand their vision to encompass the possibility of accepting little ones from the foster care system that are in desperate need of a permanent family.
Once your homestudy and family profile are completed, you may choose to be featured on our
adoptive family web page
. When a birth mother decides on adoption as her parenting choice, we work closely with her to decide what she is looking for in a family. Once parameters are established, we show her three profiles that most closely match what she is looking for. If she chooses to know more about one of those families, we may set up an interview or she may ask questions via email.
Most birth mothers will want to meet you if she chooses you to parent her child. During the homestudy process, we will have training on open communication with a birth mother. Our agency facilitates a communication agreement in which the adoptive couple, the birth family and the agency enter into the adoption process together creating a plan based on love, trust and a promise to keep the highest interest of the child in mind throughout the growing up years.
We hope this information will assist you as your wind your way through the process of deciding just how to pursue the adoption of your child. Questions are welcome, so just pick up the phone or email us at any time!
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