CONSIDERING ADOPTION?

Our goal is to make the adoption process a positive and fulfilling experience for everyone involved
At Adoption Minnesota, we recognize that adoptive parents may choose to find their child through a full service adoption program, while others may find their own birth mother through family, friends or coworkers and need only some services to complete the adoption. Still others may choose to work with an attorney, facilitator or out-of-state agency to connect with a birth mother. Because we believe there is no right or wrong way to build your family, we offer a variety of services to adoptive parents.

Services For Adoptive Parents

This is an all-inclusive package of services providing everything adoptive families need to pursue an American infant adoption.

Adoption Minnesota will

  • provide you with the legally required home study
  • train you on how to work with a birth parent
  • assist you in creating your profile letter and album, including professional writing and graphic design
  • post your profile on our Waiting Families page

In addition, we provide direct access to your assigned counselor for discussing and assessing potential birth parent situations, coordinating with a birth parent counselor for planning and carrying out your adoption plan with a specific birth parent, and following up with legally required post-placement services. Your profile letter will be available to birth parents who come to us looking for a family to adopt their child through our extensive advertising and networking programs.

In Minnesota, any adoption situation requires that the adoptive family complete a home study with a licensed child-placing agency.

At Adoption Minnesota, we provide you with a home study quickly and efficiently. You can use your home study for any domestic adoption you wish to pursue. Our Home Study fee is $3200.00 with no hidden costs, application fees, or program fees. We offer one of the least expensive home study services in Minnesota.

We also provide home studies for embryo adoptions.

There are a variety of situations in which we can provide services to birth parents. While all birth parents need to be informed of their right to counseling under Minnesota law, not all birth parents have the need for the same services. Again, we have lots of choices.

  • Consent Only
    Birth parent comes to our office one time to sign the Minnesota Consent to Adoption, completes the MN Social and Medical Background packet, and receives approximately one hour of adoption related counseling.
  • Hospital and Consent Facilitation
    A birth parent counselor is assigned to your birth mother. The counselor will work with your birth mother to create a hospital plan and will send a letter to the hospital explaining the plan. The counselor will coordinate with the hospital social worker to make sure things go as smoothly as possible for you and your birth mother during the hospital stay and will visit your birth mother at the hospital and be present at the baby’s discharge. She will handle arrangements with the hospital for the discharge. The counselor will obtain paperwork required for the legal process. In addition, up to three hours of adoptive parent counseling services may be utilized by the adoptive parents.
  • Complete Birth Parent Counseling Option
    Some birth parents will want to have a lot of help getting through their adoption beginning before the baby is born and continuing until they no longer need support. This option provides unlimited birth parent counseling before and after the birth, going well beyond the hospital plan option. It includes education, meetings with their counselor, visits to the hospital, help with filling out the Social and Medical Background form required by the State of Minnesota, negotiation of a Cooperative Agreement with the adoptive parents, and assignment of a counselor to the adoptive parents to help coordinate your stay in Minnesota or to work with your agency. It also includes a Consent to Adoption.

If you would like us to coordinate with an attorney, facilitator or another agency who is working with your birth mother, we can do that!

This option gives you access to calling us with your questions, our coordinating with another attorney, facilitator or agency (in and out of state), and accepting ICPC approval after the baby is born. Because we know that a good attorney can make our work much easier, we will reduce this fee if you work with an attorney who belongs to the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.

If your birth parent resides in Minnesota and you reside in another state, you must comply with the provisions of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) before you can return home with the child.

This procedure requires a Minnesota licensed adoption agency to file a series of documents with the State. This option includes coordinating with your home state, attorney or agency to make sure all the documents required are provided, compiling the required documents, and submitting them to the State of Minnesota.

It can be very disorienting to have to go to another state to adopt a child. The stress of adding a brand-new member to your family is added to by having to deal with a strange place and people you don’t know. We can help you with your stay in Minnesota by providing the following services:

  • Assignment of an adoptive parent counselor who will support you while you are in Minnesota. She will also provide you with information on the birth parent, and on her birth and adoptive placement plan.
  • Information regarding MN laws and time frames regarding the Consent signing and the risk period.
  • Quick, efficient Interstate Compact filings so you can get home as soon as possible.
  • Information on where to stay.
  • What to do while you’re here (including the Mall of America!). We really are “Minnesota Nice” and we want your stay to be as pleasant and comfortable as possible.

If you would like to know more about our program, have any questions, or would like us to send you information please give us a call
at
612-333-0489 or send us a message.

Facts and Myths in Adoption

It is common for families thinking about adoption to have heard various statements or stories about adoption. Often these turn out to be based on “myths” as opposed to fact. These myths are often untrue and do not reflect what really happens in adoption. Here are some of the common myths.

Myth #1: There are almost no healthy infants in the United States to adopt.

FALSE: For the families working with Adoption MN, 80% of our placements are of infants being placed directly from the hospital.

Myth #2: It takes several months just to start the process to adopt, followed by years of waiting for an adoptive placement.

FALSE:It is true that many adoption agencies have waiting lists. However, there are agencies where you may begin the process right away. At Adoption MN we do not have a waiting list. You may attend one of our evening Orientation meetings, followed by an Intake meeting that is typically scheduled within 1-2 weeks. Over the past 5 years, our average time frame between going into our “Book” of waiting families and on our website, to having a child placed in your home, is 23 months.

Myth #3: Many birth mothers change their minds and decide to keep their baby.

FALSE:Adoption agencies vary on the rate of how often their birth mothers change their minds. For birth mothers working with Adoption MN, the rate at which they change their minds varies between 4%-6%. The most common time for this change to happen is in the hospital after the baby is born.

Myth #4: An adoption is always “at risk” especially if the birth father comes back later to claim the child.

FALSE:In Minnesota birth parents can sign a legal consent to adoption any time between 72 hours and 60 days after a baby is born. Once the consent is signed, they have 10 working days until it’s final. The adoptive parents can finalize the adoption in court, three months after the baby/child is placed with them. In fewer than 1% of all adoptions, a birth father tries to claim a child or stop the adoption. If this is the case, we almost always know in advance that he will be causing a problem, and you can decide not to work with this situation. In Minnesota, we have a Putative Father Registry law, which requires a birth father to register with the State no later than 30 days after the child’s birth. If he fails to register within that time, he can never take legal action to stop or overturn the adoption.

Myth #5: Adopted children have more problems than children raised by their biological parents.

FALSE:Research on adopted children indicates that parents usually develop warm, healthy, secure relationships with their adopted infants, whose emotional health and self-image throughout the school years equal those of children living with their biological parents. A major study by the Search Institute in Minneapolis found that teenagers adopted as infants are as well adjusted psychologically, socially and emotionally as teenagers being raised by their biological families.

Myth #6: Only wealthy people can afford to adopt.

FALSE:There are expenses associated with privately adopting an infant or child. However, the costs vary considerably between agencies and attorneys, locally and out of state. These fees will greatly increase if you also use a facilitator. Typically, full service clients of Adoption MN spend a total of between $23,000-$25,000 for everything associated with your adoptive placement, including birth parent counseling and attorney fees.

domestic infant adoption information

Hoping to Adopt? Contact Us

AtAdoption Minnesota we work hard to help families create the adoption that fits their needs. We don’t have a waiting list and you may begin the process when you are ready. We are flexible and will work within your time frame. Our staff is here to support you and your birth parent throughout this process and after the placement.

Get Started Today

ADOPTION STORIES

Adoption Minnesota has been helping to create families for over 26 years. Read their inspiring stories.