Q. Are children waiting?

A. Each year, more than 134,000 children in foster care await adoption in the United States. These children have special needs:

• The majority are between the ages of 10 and 18.

• Most have physical, emotional, mental, or learning disabilities.

• Many are brothers and sisters in need of a single home.

Q. How can I learn more about children in need of families?

A. You can see and learn more about these children online. See children who need adoptive families in our Adoption Photo Album. It’s a great idea to bookmark the Album and check back often.

Q. What will a photo listing page tell me?

A. A photo listing page, whether in a book or on the web, will provide a picture of a child and a narrative description. It will tell you the child's age, racial and ethnic background, gender, and other basic demographic information. The page will also give you a "thumbnail" description of the child and may include primary areas of strengths and challenges, any special needs, and a summary of his/her personality, likes, dislikes, etc. The child's worker often describes the type of family that would be considered a good "match" for the child and may indicate such things as whether or not the child has siblings or extended family/foster family members with whom they want to stay in touch. The availability of financial support in the form of medical assistance and adoption subsidy may also be included.

Q. What won’t a photo listing page tell me?

A. A photo listing page is a brief sketch of a real child, not a "sample" or a composite. Because these are real children with unique needs, feelings, and histories, their privacy and confidentiality must be respected. Last names and home towns will not be mentioned. A photo listing page will not reveal certain kinds of personal information. Specific challenges and diagnoses will not be addressed in the photo listing.

Q. How can I make the most of a photo listing page?

A. Use it as a starting place. If a child in a photo listing appeals to you, the photo listing has done its job -- it has recruited you as a potential parent for the child. It has made the child visible and piqued your interest.

Now, you must do your job. Work with your caseworker to draft a list of questions for the child's caseworker. You will want to ask about the child's background, including child assessment summaries, medical and educational background, social history, and other material that may be available. The child's worker will begin providing these items once he/she has reviewed your home study and determined that you may be an appropriate match for the child. You should research how the child's challenges will affect your family. Adoptive parent support groups, adoption conferences and seminars, and adoption books are good places to begin. You will also want to learn whether your community provides the medical, psychological, educational, and recreational resources and services the child will need.

Q. What is the role of the birth parents in waiting child adoption?

A. By the time you identify a waiting child you want to adopt, his/her birth parents’ parental rights will already have been terminated. Your child’s birth parents will not be present in his/her life physically, but your child will carry memories of them throughout his/her life and your child may talk about them from time to time. Adoptive parents should be prepared to honor the birth parents’ role in their child’s life emotionally and spiritually.

Q. What questions should prospective parents be prepared to answer when they’re considering adopting a teen?

A. The following questions were developed for case workers by teens to help potential parents and teens make decisions about taking the risk to join a new family:

• Can you afford to/will you send me to college?

• Can you show and have respect for a teenager? How will you show it?

• Can you meet a teen’s needs? How will you do it?

• What kind of child do you want? One that wants just a mother? Just a father? Other siblings? What kind of personality? Does it matter if the child is gay or lesbian?

• Are you part of a same sex couple? How will that affect your parenting?

• Are you married? Dating? Are you hoping to be? How will that affect the way you care for me? Are you committed to me?

• Will you still be my family even if something gets in the way? If the court holds things up, for example? If I am not free for adoption? If I want to be connected to my birth family or other people? How will you show me that I am still part of your family?

• How do you discipline? What did you do when you were the maddest at a kid?

• How were you disciplined?

• How do you show affection to a child or teenager? How do you accept and expect them to show affection?

• Please provide a letter of reference from a youth who has known you for a while or from a former foster child.

• Have you been a parent? For how long? For how many kids? Why did kids leave your care (if they did)?

• When there are problems between new kids and kids that are already in the family, how will you handle them?

• Will you bring foster kids on vacation with you? To holidays or special occasions?

• What do you think your first reaction to me will be? How will you try to make me feel comfortable? Part of the family? Accepted?

• What do you understand about normal adolescent sexuality? Are you at ease talking about or accepting it?

• How will my age and order in the family change things?

• If your child has a mental or physical disability will you still be there? If he/she in residential placement? In hospital? In jail or juvenile custody?

• Will you keep me forever?

Q. What Questions Can Families Ask about a Child's History?

A.

• Why did he or she first come into foster care?

• With whom has the child lived? (This should include everyone who has cared for the child from birth to the present.)

• What were the circumstances behind each subsequent move? Was there new or different abuse or neglect in placements?

• What is known about the birthmother's pregnancy and the events soon after birth?

• Was it a difficult or easy birth?

• Did the birthmother drink alcohol or take drugs during the pregnancy? How much?

• What is the child's complete medical history? (This should include the child's medical history from birth to the present, including genetic information about the birth parents, if available. Childhood illnesses or special conditions such as asthma should be shared. When reviewing medical records, it is important to look closely at the doctor's comments and recommendations, including medical testing that may have been suggested. The results of such tests may provide further helpful information.)

• What attachments has the child formed?

• How did the child relate to his or her birth family and foster family?

• Is he or she able to bond with others?

• Does he or she still visit with siblings or other members of the birth family?

• · What adjustment challenges has the child had in the past?

• How did his or her behavior change when he or she was moved into another home?

• Which of the child's initial challenges are no longer evident? Which still need to be addressed?

• How does the child react to stress?

• Does the child know his or her own limits? How does he or she cope with them?

• What are the child's positive characteristics?

• What are the child's likes and dislikes?

• Does he or she have any special hobbies or talents?

Q. Can I Adopt a Child of Another Race?

A. Yes. The Multi-Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA) bars any agency from discriminating because of race when considering adoption opportunities for children, if the agency receives federal funding.

Q. What should I keep in mind before considering adoption of a child in foster care?

A. Fost-Adopt programs were created to bridge the gap between a child’s initial need for temporary care and the long-term need for a permanent home. Parental rights of children in Fost-Adopt placements often have not been terminated. The primary reason for such placements is to prevent moving the child multiple times. In addition to state and county fost-adopt programs, some private agencies work with social services to assist in these placements.

There are varying degrees of risk, you should explore this with the child's social worker and/or advocate. When a child is placed with a fost-adopt family, the court is often considering two possible permanency options for the child: adoption and family reunification. This is called "concurrent planning," and it can be difficult for both the biological parents and the hopeful adoptive family because neither family can be sure of the end result.

Key features of fost-adopt programs (also known as foster-adopt and foster-to-adopt) include:

• Placement with a fost-adopt family before the parental rights of the child's biological parents have been terminated;

• · Efforts at family reunification may still be ongoing, or the biological parents may be appealing a decision to terminate their parental rights;

• In general, children placed in fost-adopt programs are considered less likely than others to return to their biological family;

• You agree to adopt the child if/when the parental rights of the biological parents are terminated;

• You act as foster parents during this time.

Q. What rights do foster parents have?

A. In New York State, foster parents have the following rights:

International adoption

A. Families considering intercountry adoption must understand that the background and health information they receive about their child will likely be incomplete and may be unreliable. Frequently changing political situations increase the uncertainties of intercountry adoption, and countries may open or close without notice.

Adopting a child from another country almost always means that the adoptive family will become a transracial or cross-cultural family, which presents special responsibilities. For the child to develop self-esteem and pride, family members must incorporate into their lifestyle elements of the child’s original culture, including friendships with people of the child’s ethnicity. Arming your child against racism is another duty of transracial families. Many families report, however, that embracing another culture is one of the unanticipated joys of intercountry adoption.

The intercountry adoption process varies depending on the State, adoption agency, and country involved. In every case, prospective adoptive parents must meet the basic requirements of U.S. immigration law, and all children adopted through intercountry adoption must obtain a visa from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. Department of State.

Many factors influence the developmental, medical, emotional, and mental health of children waiting for adoption in other countries. Children often have health conditions that are common in developing countries but can be prevented or easily treated in the United States. For more information on medical issues and evaluations, click here.