My husband and I have been set an assignement from our social worker who is carrying out our home study and it is to discuss Post Adoption and all of the issues therein, from the time our child comes home with us.

Post adoption Issues:

- When and how will you talk to your child about adoption?
- How will you address the topic at the various stages of their life (how to discuss adoption with a 14 yr old is very different to a 5 year old)?
- What will you tell your child about their first family and their family history?
- If it is an Open Adoption how will organise visitation and the sharing of information, letters and photos etc with the first family?
- If it is not an open adoption how will you deal with the possibility that your child may want to search for their first family or they (or you) may want more information about their family or medical history?
- Are there siblings? Will your child have contact with them?
- How will you deal with any health or emotional issues that arise in the future particularly those that are unexpected or may have been caused or contributed to by the first family (eg. foetal alcohol syndrome, abuse etc)?
- How will you deal with possible trauma, grief or attachment issues that your child may experience? Have you done extensive reading on these issues?

- What will you tell others about your child’s adoption?
- How does your family feel about the adoption and what will you do if family members or friends treat them differently to biological family members?
- What will you teach your child about how to deal with other people’s opinions and comments especially if they are negative, cruel or intrusive?
- What will you tell your child’s school about their Adoption and how will you deal with topics or projects that may be difficult for them (eg. family trees, genetics etc)?

If your child is from a different race/culture to you:
- Do you plan on teaching your child about their culture and how will you do that?
- Are you aware of common stereotypes pertaining to that culture (eg "All asians are good at math") and how to plan on dealing with that?
- How will you help your child deal with racism?
- If your child is from another country are you planning on taking them back to visit their country/first family/foster family?

- If your child is being adopted as an older child are you aware of the issues that are common in older child adoption and how will you deal with them if they arise?
- If your child has spent time in an orphanage setting or is coming from a deprived environment are you aware of the issues (sensory issues, self stimulation behaviours, developmental delays etc) and how will you deal with them?
- If your child is coming from a foster family will you maintain contact with them?
- Are you aware of post adoptive depression?
- Have you researched/talked about the issues surrounding disrupted adoptions?
- Do you understand how to seek help if you need it?

We got a mutt from the dog shelter and we had to pay a AU$350 Adoption fee.

At that particular shelter their dogs range from AU$200 to $450 depending on age and type. I think it’s much the same at the other shelters around my area.

Like yours, the price depends on the age and type, as well as if the animal is fixed. It can vary from $40 (kittens) to $250. $250 is the highest I’ve seen, and that was for a purebred Lab with gundog training who’d already been neutered.

I have Fibromyalgia and my wife has CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) We’ve both been suffering for a long time. We have a 5 year old child together whom we love very much, however because of our illness and her behavioral problems we will be giving her up for Adoption this March.
What’s the best way to go about explaining to her why this is happening?
Are their any easy ways to explain these diseases to a child so they understand?
It’s very stressful. Thanks for your help.

i find it strange that someone with fms would tell someone else that they shoudl be able to take cae of a child despite the fms

i have fms–i can’t take care of a child–i had hoped to adopt a sibling group–but i can’t even take care of myslef ……..

anyone who really has fms understands that it is a spectrum–from being able to work and raise children (like i used to be able to do when i first had symtoms–to being bed ridden)

you don’t say you chose to have a child after becomiing so sick–you may have not been sick when you became parnets or honetsly thought you could do it.

who ever is handling the adoption should be helping with the transistion…its their job to know how to do it

I have been here since June when I came to ask a question about searching for my bio-mother.

The most important thing I learned:
Adoption is not as easy as getting "the baby," and alot of people do not think enough about its impact.

Been here on and off about 6 months. I’ve learned alot of adoptees are unhappy about their adoption and that sometimes adoption is corrupt. I haven’t learned many positives about Adoption at all in this section. Generally I feel this is a site that is mostly anti adoption.

I wanted to help someone on here. I was wondering if adoption cost a lot of money or do only the adoption parents pay. Is their a lot of work if they still keep their baby, or is it simple.

There are a lot of different ways that adoption can work. My daughter was adopted through a Private Adoption, without going through an agency, which I personally prefer. But adoption is a great choice regardless of how you do it. With my adoption, I was able to pick the family (I just asked around and found a family looking to adopt-there’s more out there than you think) and get to know them before I made the decision. We have an Open Adoption, which means I still get to see my daughter, and that’s something that you have to work out together with the family. As for price, most adoptive families that I know are willing to cover pretty much all the expenses in exchange, but in most cases if you back out of the Adoption at the last minute you are responsible for reimbursing the family for the money they spent. As for how complicated it was, I had to see a lawyer when I was about 8 months pregnant to sign some papers, and then a lawyer came to me in the hospital and I signed again. Then at six weeks post partum there was a hearing, but I chose not to attend. Those kind of things differ depending on each states law, but I think that’s pretty well how it happened. My daughter’s adoption was pretty simple, and has worked out wonderfully for all of us. You can email me if you would like to talk about it more, because I would love to provide you with more info. My email is bigcitygrl2000@yahoo.com, and my name is Becky. Good luck to you with whatever decision you make

This past year I adopted a foster child. I have been going to school and living with my parents. My dad is claiming me as a dependent. Can he also qualify for the Adoption tax credit because of our new son?

idon’t think so because he didn’t adopt the child. you did. Did he pay for the adoption fees? however your dad can claim your child as a qualifying child. That way he gets the child tax credit and another 3400 exemption.

I have a speech to do on how the recession has affected the Adoption of animals and the shelters. If anyone has any trustworthy sites or statistics it would be much appreciated. Anything will help. Thank you!

How about you go to the pets section and ask this question? This is section is on humans…..

Maybe it’s just me but I’m just not typing in the right things to see cats for sale/Adoption! Could anyone please give me some good websites?
We have tried shelters already, this is just for extra research, thank you so much!

The Blue Cross website (just type in Blue Cross) has everything you need on it, including your local animal rescue centre and all the cats available for adoption.

Please please please consider taking an older cat as they stay with us for so long.

Thank you.

We have discovered that our baby is very allergic to our cat and we need to get rid of it. She is 5 years old and very sweet, her name is Mrs. Sweets. We don’t know anyone who wants a cat and do not want to give her to the pound. We would prefer to give her to an animal Adoption agency that keeps them until they find a home. Please help?
It’s very obvious that you are not a parent Robbo.

if there is a PetSmart in your area try them. they usually have a drop off in the store. you may have to pay 30 bucks to spay or neuter but they will take it and most stay in the store until someone adopts them.

My husband and I will (hopefully) begin the Adoption process in September. We have been talking to AGAPE but I was wondering if there are other agencies I should consider using. And if we use one agency, can we still adopt children from other agencies? I just want to go with the best agency and would like a little feed back if anyone here has any experience in this situation. Thanks!

I would pick one that doesn’t charge for children. AGAPE makes a profit on the adoptions, and to me, that is unethical. I also find many of their practices unethical. They "recruit" pregnant women so that they can coerce children from them. Based on this alone, I wouldn’t ever go through them for anything. Many other agencies are the same way.
Foster care is inexpensive, and those children need homes.
If we stop giving our business to places like AGAPE, perhaps they will realize that they are morally bankrupt, and that everyone knows it.