Question

Discuss & outline the adoption process. In each step, discuss what might be the feelings of the birth parents, foster parents, adoptive parents, and children. Discuss the role of the adoption worker in this process.

Answer 1

Discuss & outline the adoption process.

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another child and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents. Adopters assume parenting responsibilities by a legal process.

Steps to Adoption:

1. Step 1: Learn About Adoption. Consider the Types of Adoption.
2. Step 2: Explore Adoption.
3. Step 3: Prepare for Adoption. Decide What Type of Adoption You Want to Pursue.
4. Step 4: Engage in the Placement Process. Begin Searching for a Child.
5. Step 5: Learn More About the Child.
6. Step 6: Adopt.

Feelings of the birth parents:

Birth parents feel a need of support, but may not receive it. They continue to manage their painful feelings of loss and grief, shame and guilt. Once the child is born, the decision to place the child for adoption may prompt new feelings of guilt about “rejecting” the child, no matter how thoughtful the decision or what the circumstances of the adoption. Birth parents may feel guilt or shame because they kept the pregnancy or adoption a secret.

Feelings of the foster parents:

Foster parents are people who officially take a child into their family for a period of time, without becoming the child's legal parents. They also feel a pain and sorrow because they missed the upbringing of the child. Now they have to cope the pain of an attachment or bonding formed between them and their child.

Feelings of the adoptive parents:

Adoptive parents feel a sense of satisfaction and happiness in their minds as now they are the legal parents of the adopted child. But they may very easily sense the feeling of sorrow and pain in the eyes of the birth parents and sometimes they empathize.

Feelings of the children:

Children may struggle with loss and grief, continuing loyalty issues, and the complexities of sibling relationships.

Discuss the role of the adoption worker in this process.

An adoption social worker is responsible for facilitating the adoption process for both the family that is adopting and the child who is being adopted. These specialized social workers work with children who are not supported by and are legally separated from their biological parents.

An adoption social worker will frequently divide work hours between an office, foster homes, adoptive parent homes, schools, hospitals, and other possible workplaces.

Social workers specializing in the adoption process need to be able to find good matches when it comes to connecting children with the right adoptive family. This task will typically involve doing some research on both the child's past and the family and background of the adoptive family. Social workers in such positions might also need to negotiating and counsel the child's birth family to help assess and attend to the child's needs.