Information that is Empowering to the Adopting Parent

As an adopting parent my suggestion is to get informed during the wait period! As your physical and emotional energy is precious at the moment and will be even more so when your baby arrives - Put down those books about adoption that are adding to your anxiety and focus your energy on specific information that can empower you. Here are some of the important Topics to consider and questions to ask yourself as a pre-adopt parent.          

Adoption:

·         How did you come to chose adoption? Normalizing and exploring your excitement and anxiety is important.  What are your fantasies and fears about who is coming? Get in touch with the true positive and joyous intention for bringing a baby into your life.

·         Preparation for becoming parents:  How are you creating physical and emotional space for your child in your daily life: as an individual and as a family unit.

·         Gaining some understanding of your strengths and skills as a parent are as important as understanding your parent traps and triggers.  Make a list of both. How do you problem solve? How do you  make decisions? How do you manage crisis? These are all important truths to know about yourself, that will prepare you for becoming a parent.

·         As a couple (and individual) it is good to begin strong as a parent. Begin to practice and talk about and make parenting choices/decisions (together) before the baby  arrives (the paperwork and making appointments during the process of adopting is an arena of great practice)  ie. When your baby comes home will the baby be in a separate room sleeping or in your bedroom?  How are you sharing the parenting responsibilities?

·         Get your community Support on board.  How are you preparing the community for your adopted child. 

a) Extended family first. b) Who else?  c) How will you introduce your adoption? What are your chosen limits on privacy?

·         Baby care information/(take an infant CPR class).  What do you need?  Childcare: Initially, keep in mind bonding time with you, the parent, when considering childcare.  It is useful to find someone who has some understanding of adoption, and is consistent, who can care for your baby when you are unable to do so due to going back to work. Try to take extended time off work to bond with your baby.  An optimum amount is 3 months. 

·         Gain some information about how you can encourage a secure bonding and attachment with your child? (attachment focused parenting by Daniel Hughes is a good resource)

·         Information about the New born brain and development.  Even though it will cause some anxiety get some clear information about how drugs and alcohol impact  the brain.  Any lasting impact is unknown until the baby is older if your child has been exposed.  However, becoming informed allows you to ask informed questions of your pediatrician when you have concerns.        

·         Open adoption What is it? (if that is what you are chosing) – Gain information so that you can discover what it means to you and your child? Begin to write down what it means to you.
                                                                                         

Become informed about adoption! This is an additional responsibility for adopting parents so you can advocate for your child,when many of life's situations calls for your support and guidance.  Gain some understanding of the 7 core issues of adoption and their  influences on individual and family development and times of transition. And lastly, spend time with a baby while you are waiting!

Domestic New Born Adoption

Do you want to adopt an infant ? If so, then probably the best route of adoption  for you is to find a good adoption lawyer who can oversee  and guide you through the entire legal process.  Find an adoption lawyer who specializes in new born adoption.  The attorneys who work in this specific area of law are often caring and extemely experienced in  guiding their clients through the twists and turns of the law.
Here are some of the specifics that you might expect to experience working with an adoption attorney:

• The structure of adoption is 'open adoption' unless the Birth parents (mainly the Birth Mother)  choses otherwise.
• Adoption attorneys work closely with the Birth Mother. If  the Birth Mother is married, then the Birth Father will also need to consent to the adoption. Both of the Birth parents are considered and respected in the "open adoption" process.
• The attorneys will take care of overseeing the terminating of the Birth parents rights and the certification of the adoption.
• Birth parents are valued and respected in the adoption process.
• The Birth Mother and the Adopting parents will often be matched by the attorney.
• The attorney will facilitate the legal process if a match of Birth and Adopting parents has already been made by an adoption agency.
• Single Adopting parents are accepted and supported as valid parents to be by adoption attorneys. 
• LBGT adopting parents are supported and accepted by adoption attorneys. 
• The adopting process is short compared to International adoption once the match  of  Birth and Adoptive parents has been made.
• The process of adopting to the certification of adoption is less than a year.
• Often you can take your baby home from the hospital.
• Adoption attorneys often have a network of experienced adoption professionals (ie. counselors/social workers/post partum doulas/pediatricians) to whom they can refer adopting parents pre and post adoption.

Five minutes peace

 In my work I have met many parents and I know that without self care, a parent can easily become tired  and irritable and depleted. When stressful situations and difficult behaviors of a child are added to the mix, then your child can start believing that they are to blame for all the suffering.  Self-care for a parent is not a luxury it is a necessity. It is a positive, healthy survival skill to pass on to your child. Self care is about knowing yourself and knowing your limits for your own sake and that of your children.

So, the holidays are winding down and the children are back in school. Maybe it is time to clean out the old and prepare for new beginnings! But wait! Before I do any of this I need to give myself a pause and rest even if it is for five minutes. Even if it is just for the time it takes to read the words on this page!  I need time and space for me to do absolutely nothing, but breath and feel myself fully! To be a human being with needs, as well as a parent! 

When my daughter was young, we both enjoyed reading a book called “five minutes peace” which was about a mother elephant who needed just five minutes to herself to pause and recharge her battery.  Of course it never happened as the baby elephant did not understand why her mother would need time alone! Sounds familiar? So making intentional time alone to be creative or just be each day is a number one goal for me in 2012.  It does not have to be a lot of time, but it does need to be consistent.  I am hoping that in achieving this spacious gift of self compassion each day I will also be giving to my daughter.

By watching and experiencing me give quiet time to myself, it will encourage my daughter to learn to be comfortable being by herself. She can begin to understand  her  own physiological and psychological need for quiet reflection, as well as outside stimulation. This is the work of a any parent, to help our children know how to be secure with their internal thoughts and feelings and creative energy and be able to respond positively  to  the barrage of external stimulation in the world.  

My hope is that I can teach my daughter to move more fluidly between times of quiet and stillness and times of activity and movement, and most importantly, recognize the value of both.  The hope is that the quiet moments alone come to feel as safe to her as those moments being rocked in my arms when she was a baby. The hope is that when she reaches that age when she can be left alone at home that she can feel confident and I can trust her to be alone. The hope is that she can delve into her own creative resources and not experience boredom with her own company! The hope is that my limit setting, although annoying at times, is internalized to make her feel safe. So, that  she will know when it is safe to take risks and safe to walk away.

Navigating the Holidays in rhythm with your child

Once Halloween has arrived and gone with the witches; super heroes and the cast of Glee carrying their stash of candy in trick or treat bags from door to door, I know that the holidays are upon us until the middle of January! Most parents these days have a mixture of dread and dreams of enjoyment in entering the holiday season! Ironically, this time of year which can be so meaningful for most families, can be filled with missed and failed opportunities to connect with each other in a meaningful way due to the hyper energy which reverberates all around us and can pick us up like a swirling tornado.  Add to this scenario a child who is highly sensitive to over stimulation and you end up with irritable family members at odds with each other.

 A simple goal I have set for our family this holiday season is to allow time and space to connect with each other.  Time for quiet reflection alone and together and times for unabashed enjoyment!  This will take some planning together so that unrealistic expectations and unpleasant surprises can be minimized.

If you have a foster/adopt child that tends to get over-excited and over-stimulated when there is a lot of sensory input going on in the environment, then one of the greatest gifts you can give that child is to stay home or to limit the number and type of functions you go to during the holidays.  Even going to Target to shop may be too much for your child. May be you can plan a celebration night with your child/children for just family, or you and your child.  There are many things you can do together and be together which takes some planning and not a lot of money.  You can create a dish or menu to shop, cook and eat together; play board games; cards; read together; draw together; play music together; make crafts or do a jig-saw. Each activity will have its own level of energy which you as the parent can orchestrate.  The human condition loves harmony and rhythm and variety, but not too much variety as we also experience emotional safety through structure and consistent repetition! It is good to plan quiet, slower paced moments/hours/days in between the active, loud, bright lighted ones. 

On the other hand you may have a lone wolf teenager in your household who prefers to not participate in anything, including the family holiday dinner!  Your child’s choice, whatever the age may be coming from a need to create emotional safety.  In a situation like this it is also useful to create a pro-active plan together.  Trying to find a rhythm that suits both of you can be challenging the older the child as energetically there is a push and a pull going on between you. However, your teen still looks to you the parent to help provide emotional safety as well as honor a degree of independence.   The parent can acknowledge the teenagers’ choice to be alone,(before it happens) while still requesting that she stay for the dinner part of the festivities.  A parent may even add ( if it is applicable) an understanding,  that you know that her choice to be alone is a preferred choice to avoid talking to a lot of family members asking questions about her life!  You can create a non-verbal cue together or a particular word that will indicate that “I have had enough and I am taking a break”

In these ways, you can help your child and you move through the holidays at a more harmonious, respectful, regulated pace, sometimes like a slow waltz,  at other times like a polka, together; rather than as a whirling dervish,  alone!

Single parent adoption internationally

When you adopt internationally, you will find that the rules of adoption in certain countries  can change during and  after adopting your child.  For an example, a year after I adopted my daughter, China closed down single parent adoption.  After 50 years of adopting internationally, Korea is now only processing  adoptions domestically.

As of  March  2011, China is again accepting applications from single women. Single women are able to adopt children from a 'special focus program'.  The children in this program are identified as special needs or are healthy children 8 years or older. The adoptions from this program are processed more quickly than the now  4 year wait period for finalizing adoption.  The age limit of a parent is now restricted to the ages between  30 - 50 years old (for both parents). In the Bay Area,  ' Heartsent' and 'BAAS' are agencies I would recommend if you are considering adopting from China.

The other  countries that now welcome single parent adoption are the following:
Ethiopia - This country accepts older women applicants and the time frame is shorter than most for finalizing adoption. The children are escorted to the US, rather than adopting parents going to Ethiopia. There are only 7 agencies in the US who process Adoptions from Ethiopia.
Russia - Adopting parents make 2 trips to Russia. The time in between trips and the wait time for finalizing  the adoption can vary.
Haiti - Although single parents to be, men and women are accepted, the regulations now say 'widowed or divorced'. The authorities are in the process of changing the wording to " single, widowed and divorced men and women.

You will find that there are some countries who are Hague convention compliant and others who are non-compliant. This can effect the ability to adopt from that country.
Guatemala used to be a country which welcomed single parent adoption.  At present due to non-compliance, all adoptions have been halted.  Adoptions from Kazakhstan have been put on hold.  Many of the countries that allow international adoption  are often third world countries which have high levels of poverty and/or have experienced war and natural disasters. When taking all of this into consideration it takes time to put into place a coherent and clear infastructure in that country for managing the adoption process.
Haiti and Kazakhstan are recent examples of how certain countries are still trying to get the infra-structure in place so that the many children who are in orphanages can find homes and parents to take care of them.  As I have mentioned before, the best situation when adopting internationally is to choose an established adoption agency this end in America that has a liason agency in the country from which you wish to adopt. This way you can be assured that everything is legitimate.

The political climate of a country, internally and in relationship to America is also something to keep an eye on when you are adopting internationally. Sometimes an adoption can be put on hold due to political unrest in the country or because certain standards in the adoption process have not been met to the satisfaction of America and sometimes to the satisfaction of the other country. 
Given all these variables, I have found that if you do your homework about the process of adoption for that particular country and find an agency you trust and get to know the liason agency that is being used, then you are well on the way to bringing your child home.

 

Considering single parent adoption?

If you are considering single parent adoption, then, I found that one of the first things to do after making the decision, is to find a group of people who have already adopted a child or are in the process of adopting a child; preferably single parents to be. When I first decided to adopt my daughter from China I joined a single parent group, specifically for women in the Bay Area who had adopted or were in the process of adopting their daughters from China.  I found this group through the organization called "Families of Children from China."  "Resolve" is another good resource for possibly finding an adoption group to join.

 Intitially, it was through the FCC group that I found different referrals for adoption agencies and eventually chose the adoption agency that I wanted to use to help me through the process of  adopting my daughter. The group provided encouragement for me when I was in that arduous waiting period for the adoption to be finalized and gave me hope when we celebrated together the arrival of each child when they came home to the U.S.
Later on, we provided childcare support for eachother, and we became very familiar with eachother's adoption story.  Now the children are nearly teenagers, some go to the same school or are doing the same after school sport.   Some of the parents are married, some are still single. We are even 'older' than the  'older parents to be' that we were! And I am thankful we have eachother.  
I believe that it is in part, because of this connection to these other families, that my daughter does not feel in any way weird or extraordinary being a daughter adopted from China and living with a single parent in California!

Come join us!     An Adoption support group for parents of children of all ages. Beginning  Thursday January 12th, 6-7.30pm for 10 weeks. Mill Valley, CA. 
Call  415 381 5889  for more information.

Important questions to consider in single parent adoption

As a single parent to be, adopting a child, have you  considered how family opinion and support or withdrawal of support may matter to the process of adoption?
Who in your family of origin will be supportive of you adopting a child?
Who in your family will have a negative reaction?
How will you begin  integrating your adopted child into your family?
Will she be accepted into your family of origin?  If not what are you going to say or do to help your child understand that it is not her or you that is at fault? How do you manage the rejection?

These were all questions I pondered before picking up the phone and making the call to my mother to tell her about my decision. It is not that I wanted her approval, but I did so want her blessing. Only then  would I know that my daughter would be accepted into the Jones family and I could breath more easily in the process of adopting. For single parents' to be, we are forced to review more fully our relationships in our family of origin and how those connections may impact the adoption process and our children in the future.

11 years ago I was in the position of being single and I knew that I wanted to adopt my daughter from China. I was at the beginning of this process and one of the difficult calls I made was to my mother to tell her about my decision. I was not sure how she would respond, even though her response would not effect my decision to adopt, it would certainly impact my daughter as she became part of our family together and part of the Jones family. 

When my mother responded with "I have always wanted a grand-daughter" I  was relieved.
I feel fortunate that even though my mother could not make the trip to China to bring my daughter home she did make the trip to America to meet my daughter 2 months after our return home. I am also grateful that they have grown to love eachother. And even though my mother has some fixed sterotypical ideas about how Chinese people should be, it does not get in the way of the love for her grand-daughter! 

Thankfully, my daughter has the support of our adoptive family together; our extended family of friends and community here in the US and then she has 'my' family which she considers 'her' family - a loving grandmother, uncle, aunt and cousins, whom we see as often as we can.