We often say that each adoption journey is different, but actually there are only a handful of paths to adoption. In Arkansas there are five paths that families can walk down that could lead them to adoption.
Once you start on a particular Arkansas adoption road, it won’t intercept the others again. So, if you decide to adopt through an adoption agency, you won’t also hear about available children in the Arkansas foster system or children available for international adoption.
It’s important that you choose the adoption path that is right for you.
Foster to Adopt
If you are considering adopting and are open to an older child, I strongly recommend you explore adoption through the State of Arkansas Department of Social Services. You can apply to foster children, which could lead directly to adopting those children, or you can apply to be an adoptive home for children who become available for adoption in the foster system.
This road really meets two specific interests a lot of adoptive parents have for adoption.
First, it allows them to help a child in need. You see, there is a misunderstanding around adoption where people say, “I want to adopt because I know there are so many babies that need a home.” But that’s incorrect. Honestly, in Arkansas, we have no trouble finding homes for any baby. However, as the child gets older it’s harder to find them an adoption placement. There are hundreds of older children and teens in Arkansas who are adoption-ready now. Adopting through the children’s division allows you to help a child who might not otherwise get a forever family.
Second, it is free. The expenses of some roads to adoption can be an obstacle for some families. Foster-to-adopt is the cheapest way to adopt and can have the greatest impact.
The biggest negative is that a child only goes in the system if they’ve experienced child abuse or neglect. Special care is nearly always needed. Age is also a factor. It can be difficult for a person to adopt an infant through the foster care system. It is much easier to connect with a child between 6 and 18 years old.
International Adoption
Adopting internationally is an expensive journey and you need to be really passionate about in order for it to make sense. You should use a private international adoption agency, who may have a local office, to find an available child in another country.
This private adoption process can take years of waiting for the search and then court hearings before the child gets adopted and you get to parent. It’s very hard to get a baby. It may be impossible unless the children are over a certain age or have special needs.
Private international adoption costs depend upon which country you adopt from and their travel requirements, but it usually costs adoptive parents tens of thousands of dollars as travel related, legal expenses and agency fees add up.
Increasing numbers of countries have halted international adoptions, too, and more may do so in the future.
The upside to the parent for this type of adoption is that you may be truly saving the child’s life. There are places in the world where a baby who isn’t adopted may die. It’s important to do extra research in this area as some international adoption agencies have had more legal and ethical complaints than others.
Adoption Agency
Heimer Law works with a number of different Arkansas adoption agencies.
If you choose the adoption agency path, you’ll work with a private licensed Arkansas agency which walks your family through the process, with adoption specialists there for you and social workers to care well for the birth parents. Agencies can be a great road to the adoption of a baby.
While fees vary greatly, most private agencies charge between $15-35k depending upon the care, services, and resources the birth parents need through the process. I recommend agency adoption to families wanting to adopt a baby.
Private agencies are the best way to make sure everybody’s needs are met in adoption. The best private agencies will care well for the birth mother while walking confidently with the adopting parents and looking out for the child’s interests.
We do adoption legal work for some of the biggest private agencies in America and have helped hundreds of families bring their baby home.
Attorney Placements
Arkansas law allows a baby to be placed by an attorney. Heimer Law will help match babies to adoptive parents and provide legal finalization.
Most Heimer Law adoptions cost less than an agency adoption and our goal is for our adoptions to be fully reimbursed by the federal adoption tax credit.
A drawback to using an attorney may be a slower adoption. Agencies invest more to find expectant moms and birth moms. Instead, we make contact with local Arkansas hospitals, social workers, non-profit agencies, crisis pregnancy centers and others to offer our services to mothers and their babies.
Birth Mother Placement
Here you find the local child on your own. It is actually one of the most common forms of adoption. Often, it comes about because of a recognized need — perhaps a friend or sibling who isn’t ready to parent but is facing an unplanned pregnancy. Sometimes a friend of family member steps in a case like this.
In other cases, the would-be adoptive parents may know they want to adopt and seek out a baby in need of a loving, stable home.
Couples who want to adopt should tell their prospective plan to everybody they know. Who knows where the connection might come from? A woman who hasn’t chosen a family to place with may see you as a solution to her crisis. This means you aren’t competing with other families to get chosen and the birth mom and baby can still get great care if you bring an attorney with a social worker into the process as soon as possible.
The other great thing about this is that the costs to do adoptions is far less if you don’t need to be matched to the child. This means that your entire adoption could cost only a few thousand dollars for legal services and birth costs.
Of course, the downside to this type of adoption is that it isn’t easy to find an available child and it can be hard to decide to be vulnerable enough to let everyone you know in on your desire to adopt.
These roads can be long, and bumpy, and expensive for prospective adoptive parents…but they are your options. If you want to adopt, choose the path that’s best for you and start walking. Your child may be at the other end