How To Adopt a Child

Decide your requirements. Are you open to adopting an older child? Or a child of a different race, a baby with health problems, or siblings? Could you live with an “open adoption,” where the birth mother remains in your baby’s life?

Sign up with an adoption agency. Your chances of getting a newborn, as opposed to an older child, will be higher with a private agency than with a government agency.

Put a resume together, which explains your qualifications for becoming a parent. Include photos and a heartfelt letter to any moms-to-be who decide to be involved in the adoption process.

Prepare to be scrutinized. Before an agency accepts someone, they must pass background checks, be fingerprinted, get a clean bill of health, present their income tax returns and other relevant documents, and prove that their home is suitable for a child. Some states also require prospective parents to complete a parenting workshop.

While you’re waiting to hear from the adoption agency, you can also start your own search: Run classified ads in newspapers and online, and post flyers in hospitals and women’s health clinics. Make sure friends and family know you’re looking to adopt, too.

Another option is to look into frozen-embryo adoption, known as “snowflake adoption,” where couples that have tried in vitro fertilization donate their unused embryos to would-be parents.

Be patient. The process can take months or even years. But a child is well worth the wait.