Guest Blogger and Attorney Anthony Zurica offers helpful advice to waiting prospective adoptive parents.
While you wait to bring home your adopted child, there are two things that you can be working on to help the waiting period go quicker: Stability and Security. Both are required before you can bring home a baby, so the sooner you get them in place, the better for all involved.
Stability is the support system that you need in place during the long adoption process. This can include your adoption team – your agency, attorney, a social worker. But more importantly, this is your family and friends as well as other adoptive families. Often times, your social worker can help get you in touch with other families that have adopted in similar circumstances. Or you can do your own searching on social media. Facebook especially is a good place to find other families of adoption that can help you throughout the entire adoption process.
Maybe you’re still thinking you can do this on your own? This is what one adoptive mother had to say on BabyCenter.com:
“Even though any adoptive parent will tell you that every bump or curve you hit in your adoption path is part of the road to the child that you were ultimately meant to have, the wait can be discouraging and exhausting. If a waiting couple can build a support group or have access to one through the agency they’re using, it’s well worth their time to go. It’s nice to talk to people who are in the same boat. It’s also great to celebrate the arrival of your baby with that group, as they know how magical it is. I believe anyone who cares for you will be happy for you and see the magic, but people tend to express their fears as well. Have a safe place to talk about yours and share your happiness.”— Janice
The second piece of the puzzle is security in your home. One major step in the adoption process is the homestudy. This is a series of meetings you’ll have with your social worker one of which will be conducted in your home to verify safety for the child. During this visit, the social worker will be making sure that your home is a safe and appropriate space to raise a child. They’ll look for general safety features such as working smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide detectors and medication being out of children’s reach. All cleaning products should be stored remotely and away from food. And if you have pets, make sure they’re friendly and vaccinated.
The homestudy is not a time for making sure your house is babyproofed with outlet covers and gates. You don’t even have to have a nursery set up, yet. It’s simply to verify there is a place for the child and also to educate prospective families on providing a secure and stable environment for a baby. So get the main safety issues taken care of and then relax.
Once you have stability and security in place, you’re much closer to being ready to bring home your new adopted baby and you can rest assured that you’ll be bringing them into a welcoming and safe home. And that is the best gift anyone can give their family.
About the Author: Anthony Zurica is a first generation attorney. As a young attorney, Anthony realized that he wanted to dedicate his career to helping children and families through his knowledge of the law. Anthony is a Junior Board member of the NY Foundling. He is also a volunteer CASA in Westchester County. Please check out Anthony’s firm or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.