Domestic Adoption
INFANT ADOPTION
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island
Lutheran Social Services offers a full-service domestic infant adoption program. We prepare prospective adoptive families through pre-adoption counseling and the home study process, and we assist birthparents in making plans for the permanent care of their unborn children. When adoption is the plan, we help birthparents to select the family who will parent their child. We encourage birthparents and prospective adoptive families to meet before the birth and determine together the extent of on-going contact they will share. We refer to this type of adoption as Agency-Assisted Adoption.
We can assist you to fulfill the legal requirements of Identified Adoption, in which prospective adoptive parents and expectant birthparents are matched outside of the agency. Many of our families network with friends and family to identify a birthparent who may wish to make an adoption plan. In most instances, the newborn infant is placed in the care of the adoptive family upon discharge from newborn hospital care, and the adoption is finalized within six to eight months.
The children placed through the LSS infant adoption program are predominately healthy newborns of Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, or multiracial parents. When you have completed a home study and the approval process, your family profile will be entered into the LSS pool of approved families and you’ll have an equal opportunity to be selected by any birth mother who is seeking a home for her child. The wait for a placement may range from a few days to several months, or even a couple of years. Finalization typically takes place within six to eight months after placement.
WAITING CHILDREN
Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
Lutheran Social Services offers a full range of adoption preparation and support services to families wishing to adopt waiting children available through State Child Welfare systems. These children often have special mental, physical, or emotional needs stemming from a history of neglect or abuse. They may be older children, children of mixed racial background, sibling groups, or children whose permanent placement is impacted by significant legal challenges. Placements are made in cooperation with the responsible public agency, and in most cases fees are borne by the placing state agency.
Once you have completed the adoption training, home study, and approval process, you will be registered with your state of residence as a family approved for placement of a child/ children with special needs. We assist in networking with agencies in other states to locate a child who is a suitable match for your family. The wait for placement depends upon the needs of the children available for adoption and your ability to meet those needs.
RELATIVE, STEP-PARENT and CO-PARENT ADOPTIONS
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island
LSS is happy to work with families directly to complete relative, step-parent, and co-parent adoptions. In accordance with the laws of your state of residence, a home study, with supporting documentation such as police and protective services clearances, is generally required. We can assist you every step of the way towards the legalization of your existing parent-child relationship, as in step-parent and co-parent relationships, and in the fostering of new family bonds in the adoption of infants who are related to the adopting family.
Depending upon your individual needs, services may include counseling, termination of parental rights of the birthparents if necessary, post-placement reporting where required, preparation and submission of court documents, and attendance at the finalization hearing. The fees and requirements in these adoptions vary from state to state.
Meet LSS Families
Waiting to adopt |
Meet LSS Families
Who have adopted
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