What is Adoption?
Adopting a child is an important and life-changing process that gives a child a second chance at life as well as a stable and loving home environment. An adoption is at its core a legal process in which a parent or couple take custody of a child who has been given up for adoption, for whatever reason, and give them a loving and stable home to grow up in. In its fullest terms, the adoptive parent legally become the parent of the child and also is given all of the parental rights over that child. In all simplicity, after the adoption process, you are considered the child’s parents from birth. New birth certificates are usually made showing you and your spouse as being the child’s birth parents.
Before a child can be adopted, it is important that the legal aspects of the adoption process are understood by the parent, unless there are circumstances that mitigate such issues. For example, one may be adopting informally from a sibling, or such, in which case there may be no legal issues as such. If a parent is giving a child up for adoption, then they have to understand that when the process is complete, according to the law, the biological parents never existed as such. In some cases, the government may have taken the child away due to their determination that the home was unfit, in which case the parents often have to forfeit all parental rights.
The adopting parents will have to undergo an interview as well as an application process to determine if they are able to raise the child in a safe loving home environment. This interview may also include a homestudy in which a representative of the courts may be present in your home to see how you and the child interact on a daily basis.
Counselling is usually given to the biological parent, adoptive parents as well as to the child, depending on the circumstances to ensure that the process will not cause undue stress and emotional damage to all interested parties.
After all of this has been accomplished, as the adoptive parents, you will have to attend a court hearing in front of a family court judge who will hear all of the reports and other information involving the adoption and decide if you can adopt the child. If the judge decides to allow the adoption, he or she will issue an adoption decree in which the birth certificate will be amended and a new one will be issued to the adopting family. The original birth certificate as well as the court proceeding will be sealed.
In the event of an international adoption, this process will be done in front of a federal court judge who will then determine if the child would be allowed citizenship before the adoption as been finalized.
Any way you look at it, adopting a child is a way to give that child a second chance to grow up in a loving and stable home environment.