U.S. Infant Adoption

This is the third post in a series of Adopting in the 50 States. Today, we're in Arizona, the 48th state and home of the Grand Canyon. Remember, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. Consult an attorney or other adoption professional with specific questions. If you have adopted in Arizona and would like to share your experience with others, please leave a comment or email me at RobynC@adoptionblogs.com. Who May Adopt In Arizona? Any adult resident of the State, whether married, unmarried, or legally separated, is eligible to adopt. A husband and wife may jointly adopt. When May Consent Be Signed? Consent may be signed no sooner than 72 hours after the birth of the child. The consent… [more]

This is the second in a series about Adopting in the 50 States. We're going alphabetically, so today, we're in Alaska. Although it may be close to Russia, it's really nothing like that. Remember, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. Consult an attorney or other adoption professional with specific questions. If you have adopted in Alaska and would like to share your experience with others, please leave a comment or email me at RobynC@adoptionblogs.com. Who May Adopt In Alaska? A husband and wife, an unmarried adult, or the unmarried mother or father of the person to be adopted. When May Consent Be Signed? Consent may be signed any time after the birth of the child. The consent must be signed… [more]

This is the first in an ongoing series about Adopting in the 50 States. We're starting with Alabama, home of the first 911 call. Remember, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. Consult an attorney or other adoption professional with specific questions. If you have adopted in Alabama and would like to share your experience with others, please leave a comment or email me at RobynC@adoptionblogs.com. Who May Adopt in Alabama? Any adult person or husband and wife. Alabama does not discriminate based on age, marital status, or if a parent is employed outside the home. When May Consent Be Signed? In Alabama, consent can be signed anytime before or after the child’s birth. If the biological mother's consent is taken… [more]

Hello Readers! January is already gone. Wow! In February, I'll be starting a series of posts about adopting in the 50 US states. (I may even add the territories.) Starting with Alabama, twice per week, I will post basic information about adoption laws in the state. Before I start, however, some terminology needs to be explained. Definitions are from the Adoption.com Glossary, unless otherwise noted.

• Consent: The document that is voluntarily signed by the birthparents in an adoption that allows the adoptive parents to adopt their child.
• Termination of Parental Rights (TPR): A court order that severs the rights, powers, privileges, immunities, duties, and obligations between a parent and child. A termination of parental

The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It's designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community. This round comes to you courtesy of the wonderful Andy of Today's the Day!. We often hear about open adoptions where the two sides don't want the same level of openness. First mothers who don't get updates as often as they would like, or not as many visits each year. Or adoptive parents who want to include their child's first mother in his life, but she is not ready. But what we don't often discuss is when… [more]

On Tuesday, January 17, 2006, at 1 a.m., I was in a hospital in Missouri. I had been there since 5:30 Monday morning. I've written about our hospital experience at great length before, so I won't do it again. I left the hospital angry, confused, and helpless. I wasn't sure what would happen to the baby boy who wasn't quite mine yet. I hated that he was all alone and there was nothing I could do about it. At the hospital, all the nurses we encountered repeated variations on a theme: You'll have him for the rest of his life. It wasn't comforting then, and it still angers me now. He shouldn't have been all alone, with… [more]

It's 12:58 am PST as I write this. Jack didn't get to sleep tonight  until about 11:30. I blame the green Jamba Juice (which I got for him, so it's really my fault). However, despite the fact that I feel like a clueless, terrible Mommy, I'm going to write about an endearing moment that happened spontaneously this evening. I picked Jack up from school and was bringing him to Jamba Juice for a pre-first-ballet-class snack. We were stopped at a red light when, out of the blue, he said, "Thank you for adopting me." Now, my first thought was that my son just said "thank you" without being prompted. My second thought was, "He shouldn't be thanking me for adopting him."… [more]

The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It's designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community. Call them resolutions, commitments, changes, or choices--how will you be proactive in the area of open adoption in 2010? So far, all of the bloggers have focused on their own open adoptions. Many have "resolved" to keep in better contact. I could say that I'm going to work at getting letters and pictures out more frequently. I should do that. I don't know if I will. I'm too much of a completist. Printing 5 photos and mailing them just doesn't work for me. I want to choose photos that have meaning… [more]

I was an English major in college, and one topic that we discussed in almost every humanities class involved experience. You see, read, and evaluate everything based on your previous experiences. Unless a zombie eats your brains, you can't discount your experience. This doesn't mean that you can't keep an open mind. It doesn't mean that you can't learn from the experiences of others. It just means that your experience is always going to influence what you think and do. Where am I going with this? I've often written that Jack's birthmother, S, is the stereotypical birthmother. Until I "met" Jenna and other birthmothers, my entire birthmother experience was S, and what I thought about birthmothers was biased because of… [more]

There are only a few more days in 2009. Soon, a new decade will be upon us. At the end of the year, I like to reflect on what has happened in the previous 12 months. I went through this year's posts on the Adoption Blogs, and on each of the blogs I write - Hoping to Adopt, US Infant Adoption, and Transracial/Transcultural Adoption - I'm summarizing for you. Here on US Infant Adoption, you get a list of my favorite posts of 2009. Yes, there is an inordinate number of my posts on this list. I can't help it. I read all my posts, and some of them I really like. I don't read every Adoption Blogs post… [more]