Category: Adoption

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 is a federal law designed to protect Native American families after what became a consistent pattern of removing American Indian children from their homes and placing them into foster care with non-Native families.

Michael Belfonte is well-versed in ICWA as an adoption attorney for Kansas and Missouri, and he can help guide you through ICWA guidelines if you are adopting an American Indian child into your family.

Here’s how ICWA may affect your adoption:

The Purpose of ICWA

The purpose of ICWA is to keep Native American children with their families or within their tribe when possible, in an effort to “protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families.”

This allows American Indian families to stay together whenever possible to prevent further fracturing of their families and culture within the tribe.

If You Enter Into an Adoption Opportunity with a Prospective American Indian Birth Mother

The ICWA process will only affect adoptions that involve birth families who are members (or whose children would be eligible to be members) of federally recognized tribes.

Consent will work a little differently under ICWA guidelines than with other voluntary adoptions. To sign her adoption consent, the birth mother must give that consent:

• After the child is at least 10 days old
• In writing before a judge (in state or tribal court, or both)

Michael and the judge will verify that the birth mother was provided with a detailed explanation of the full meaning of her consent and that she confirmed she understood her choices before issuing her consent.

The preferences of where to place the child will go in the following order:

1. With any extended biological family members
2. Non-biological families within the tribe
3. Other Indian families
4. Families with some verified Native ancestry (if approved by the tribal court)
5. Non-tribal, non-Native families (if approved by the tribal court)

As your adoption attorney, Michael will help to:

• Communicate with the tribe’s social service program
• Communicate with tribal courts
• Ensure that the adoption meets all ICWA requirements before proceeding

Michael will make every attempt to contact the tribal court to notify them of the petition to adopt. If they fail to respond within a reasonable amount of time, then the adoption will still proceed. Most of the time, the tribe will approve the adoption as long as the birth mother has approved of the adoptive family and she is voluntarily placing her child for adoption.

If you are adopting a Native American child across state lines, you must also meet ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) requirements. To learn more the processes of adopting a child with Native heritage, contact Michael Belfonte today.

There are many factors in the adoption process that can affect how long you’ll wait to have a child placed in your home — the most important of which is what adoption professional you work with.

Michael Belfonte works closely with American Adoptions to help hopeful adoptive parents find an adoption opportunity. The adoption wait time will be significantly less with American Adoptions than it would be with a small local agency.

Here’s how Michael and American Adoptions minimize the amount of time you’ll have to wait to adopt:

• Advertising: They reach more potential birth mothers on a national level, so there are more available adoption opportunities.

• 24/7 Availability: A professional is always ready on the 24-hour adoption hotline at American Adoptions, so potential birth mothers can be connected with adoption support around the clock.

• Adoptive Family Profiles: American Adoptions works with a professional media team to help you put together a text, video and photo profile that will capture the attention of potential birth mothers looking for the right adoptive parents for their babies.

Because you’re working with the national agency that does more private domestic adoptions in the U.S. than any other agency, you’ll wait significantly less time to adopt a child.

How long it takes to adopt a child through Michael and American Adoptions also depends on how specific you are about the types of adoption opportunities you’re open to. For example, American Adoptions offers two different programs that will have different adoption wait times:

• The Traditional Program involves the adoption of all non-African American healthy newborns. Races include, but are not limited to, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, etc. or any non-African American combination of races. The average wait to be matched with an adoption opportunity in this program is 1–9 months, while the wait until placement is 3–12 months, on average.

• The Agency-Assisted Program involves the adoption of healthy newborns of full African-American heritage or any race combined with African-American heritage. The average wait to be matched in this program is 1–6 months, while the average wait until placement is 1–9 months.

You should know that 75 percent of adoptive families who work with Michael and American Adoptions adopt within those estimated wait times, so this is the closest answer to the question “how long does the adoption process take?”

To learn more about how to streamline your adoption process, contact Michael now.

Michael Belfonte is working to shed light on old myths about adoption and educate prospective adoptive families about what adoption really means. To speak to Michael about any questions you have or to begin the adoption process, you can contact him here.

Here are few common adoption myths, and the truth about modern adoption:

“I’m single/We’re not married/We’re gay — so I/we can’t adopt.”

Most adoption professionals welcome prospective adoptive parents of all types, and in general, very few adoption agencies will be concerned about your marital status.

If you’re adopting with a partner or spouse, the only thing that really matters to your chosen adoption professional is your commitment to the relationship and your ability to be a good role model for healthy and loving relationships for your adopted child.

“It’s faster and/or cheaper to adopt internationally than domestically.”

International adoptions require extensive traveling, which requires extensive funds and time. It is also important to verify the legitimacy of the international adoption organization you’re adopting from; in recent years, some overseas organizations have closed down suddenly without notice or refunds to prospective adoptive parents.

While many international adoption agencies work to fight these risks, adopting from overseas is not necessarily faster or cheaper than private domestic adoption in the U.S.

“I can’t afford adoption.”

It’s true — the adoption process can be financially draining. But each cost is important to the adoption process, and every dime matters.

For families who are struggling to finance their adoption, there are resources available to help. In addition to adoption loans and grants, there are also often employer-provided adoption benefits for employees. The adoption tax credit can ease the financial aftermath of adoption, and some state-run agencies will offer adoptive parents subsidies and stipends to help with foster care adoption expenses.

Many adoptive parents get creative in the financing of their adoption, turning to fundraisers and events to help front the cost.

“My criminal record will prevent me from adopting.”

Your home study will include criminal background checks as well as checks for child abuse or neglect. While some violent or sexual crimes could prevent you from becoming an adoptive parent, most minor offenses won’t disqualify you.

A judge will usually review your criminal record to ensure that none of your prior offenses could pose a threat to the safety of a child in your home, but again, most criminal offenses aren’t relevant to your ability to parent.

“I need to adopt a child who’s the same race as me or people will ask questions.”

Transracial adoptions do pose unique challenges, but fortunately, adoption is becoming more widely understood and accepted. Yes, people might make assumptions or ask ignorant questions occasionally. But this is an opportunity to educate them about adoption and about racial sensitivity.

Adoptive families that include multiple racial backgrounds have found fantastic ways of honoring the different racial and cultural heritages within their family and have worked to provide each other with positive role models of every race and background in their daily lives.

This may mean stepping out of your comfort zone, and it may mean being prepared to answer questions about adoption. But what matters is the ultimate goal of bringing a child into your family through adoption — not what their racial or cultural makeup is like.

“I have to adopt within the area.”

Many people considering adoption assume that most adoption agencies are state-run or local. But national adoption agencies like American Adoptions offer lower wait times, more personalized care and a wider range of services to both birth and adoptive families.

Adopting from a national pool of pregnant women considering adoption will shorten your wait time and ensure that you’re paired with a prospective birth mother who wants the same kind of adoption as you.

“Most adoptions are closed.”

Babies aren’t adopted anonymously these days. Now that the stigma of adoption is wearing away, birth families want to be involved with the adoption to some degree. In fact, 90 percent of birth mothers want some kind of open adoption with the adoptive family.

Gone are the days when adoptive parents never knew anything about their child’s birth mother, and gone are the days when a birth mother would never know what became of the child she placed for adoption. Most adoptions today are semi-open or open.

Semi-open adoptions allow for communication like letters and photos to be exchanged through the adoption agency. An open adoption allows for as much communication as both parties feel comfortable with. This could even include arranged visits. But, this doesn’t mean that you’ll be co-parenting with the birth family. It simply means that you’ll both have some kind of connection to each other’s lives.

“It takes years to adopt.”

With Michael Belfonte and his partners at American Adoptions, most hopeful adoptive parents have a child placed in their home within 1 to 12 months.

While certain parts of the adoption process can feel slow (the home study, for example, can take at least a month) the adoption process from start to finish is usually complete within a year.

“Most people don’t know they’re adopted.”

Because most adoptions are open, not only do adoptees know that they’re adopted, they’re also satisfied with the amount of contact they have with their birth parents.

For an adoptee to suddenly find out that they’re adopted can be traumatizing and instills a feeling of distrust toward their adoptive family. Adoptees consider their adoption story to be a normal part of their life and an important part of how they came to be part of the family.

“I should wait to tell them about their adoption when they’re older.”

It’s highly recommended that adoptive parents begin talking with their child about adoption from the first day that they bring them home. This way, an adoptee simply will always know that they were adopted, and there will never be any sense of secrecy or shame.

Don’t worry about whether they’ll “understand” or not. Your child will continue to experience new emotions regarding their adoption throughout adolescence and even to adulthood. This is normal. What matters is that they begin hearing their story from day one, and they know it’s a safe and normal topic for them to discuss.

You can begin with children’s books about adoption, telling them the story of their adoption, using adoption-positive language and keeping a photo of their birth family and explaining who they are.

“Most pregnant women who want to place their child for adoption are teenagers.”

Expectant mothers are of all backgrounds, ages, races and religions, as well as marital and socioeconomic status. While prospective birth mothers can be teenagers, most women who choose adoption for their unborn babies are actually about 25–35 years old and are currently raising older children. They’re often concerned that they can’t afford to take care of another child, they want the child to grow up in a two-parent home, or maybe they’re just not ready for this child at this particular point in their lives.

The one thing that all pregnant women considering adoption have in common: They’re choosing adoption because they feel that it’s the best thing that they can do for their baby.

“The birth family will want the baby back.”

Once the birth parents have signed their adoption consent forms after the state-mandated waiting period (12 hours after the birth in Kansas, 48 hours in Missouri), they’ve terminated their parental rights. After that, it would be very difficult for them to regain those rights in court because the judge would have to decide that reinstating their parental rights is what’s best for the child.

Once the final adoption decree has been issued in court (typically about six months after your adopted child has been in your home) you’re officially awarded parental rights. Even if the birth parents do have regrets about their adoption decision, they won’t be able to regain parental rights after this point.

However, most birth families understand that adoption is the best decision for their situation. They’ll feel grief and experience moments of doubt and worry about how their child is from day to day. But that doesn’t mean that they “want the baby back,” and it certainly doesn’t mean they’re going to try to barge into your life to “reclaim their baby.”

“If I have an open adoption, my adopted child will be confused as to who her real parents are.”

There’s no evidence to support that an adopted child would ever be confused about who their parents are. They know that their parents are the ones who tuck them in at night, who take care of them when they’re sick and who are the sources of love and comfort.

An adopted child’s relationship with their birth family in an open adoption is a unique one. But it feels more like that of a family friend or an aunt who comes to visit occasionally than a parent-child relationship.

The term “real parents” is as harmful as it is misleading. An adopted child has birth parents and they have parents. It’s not confusing to them. When they’re old enough, they can tell you so themselves.

“I might not love an adopted child as much as a biological child.”

Just as a child knows who their parents are, a parent knows who their child is. The love between adopted children and their parents is no different than that of a biological child.

Because you weren’t pregnant with your adopted child, it is normal if it takes a little longer for you start to really feel like their parents. Some people feel it instantly. Some people take a little longer. But there will be a moment when it suddenly all feels real and it’ll be as if you could never imagine your life without this child.

“Women place their babies for adoption because they get paid for it.”

Pregnant women considering adoption may receive assistance with basic living expenses such as rent, groceries, maternity clothes and utilities based on their individual level of need, which is assessed and approved by a judge. Some women will need more financial help than others (for example, a single mother with several other children will have greater financial need than a married woman with no other children).

However, it’s illegal to pay a pregnant woman directly for adoption. The financial assistance exists to help them through their pregnancy and to ease some of the burdens that come with being pregnant and not able to work as much.

Choosing adoption is one of the most difficult decisions a woman will ever have to make — and she does so because she feels it’s in the best interest of her baby.

“The only children available for adoption are sick or have special needs.”

It’s relatively rare to adopt a newborn who has any health conditions. Most babies are born healthy and happy.

If a child were to have any kind of special needs, you’d be made aware of that before the adoption proceeds. A child with any special needs be placed with an adoptive family that’s prepared for that situation.

“There are no babies available for adoption in the U.S.”

There are thousands of pregnant women looking for adoptive families across the U.S., and there are even more adoptable babies, toddlers and children waiting for homes. You don’t have to turn to international adoption if you have your heart set on adopting a baby from birth.

Michael and his associates at American Adoptions can help connect you with a potential birth mother looking to place her child for adoption into a loving home like yours, and he can ensure that your adoption process is a smooth one. Contact Michael now to begin the adoption process.

Whether you’re a pregnant woman considering adoption or a family hoping to grow through adoption, the process can be overwhelming at first. Chances are that this is your first direct encounter with adoption, and learning about the process is one of the first steps.

You’ll learn pretty quickly that adoption comes with its own jargon. And while Michael Belfonte is well-versed in adoption language and ready to help you understand it as well, it’s helpful to understand just exactly what you’re reading in your research.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a glossary of some of the terms you may come across. To get a better understanding of any of these phrases or to learn more about pursuing adoption in the Kansas City area, call Michael at 816-842-3580, or contact him online.

A

Adoption Agency: An organization that places children in homes under the jurisdiction of state laws.

Adoption Assistance: Subsidies provided by the federal or state governments to help make adoption possible for families, including those families who adopt children with special needs.

Adoption Attorney: A lawyer who arranges and specializes in adoption.

Adoption Petition: A legal document that prospective parents use to request the court’s permission to adopt a child.

Adoption Tax Credits: A non-refundable tax credit available to adoptive parents who claim adoption expenses reimbursements.

B

Birth certificate (amended): A legal document issued after an adoption is finalized that replaces an original birth certificate. The birth parents’ names are replaced by the adoptive parents’ names.

Birth certificate (original): A legal document issued when a child is born that includes his or her biological history as well as the identity of one or both biological parents.

C

CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates): People, usually volunteers, who ensure the needs and interests of kids in child protection judicial proceedings are fully protected.

Certification: The approval process that ensures adoptive or foster parents are suitable, dependable and responsible.

Child Protective Services: A social service agency that receives reports about child maltreatment, investigates and provides intervention and treatment.

Closed adoption: An adoption in which the confidentiality of the adoptive parents as well as the birth parents are protected by law, and all records are sealed.

Confidential Intermediary: An individual who has access to sealed adoption files to conduct a search. This person may be hired by the inquiring party to search for an adopted adult, birth parents or other relatives, to make contact, and to obtain either consent or denial for the release of that person’s information.

Confidentiality: Keeping identifying and other significant information a secret. Ethics require social workers and other adoption professionals to keep information about a client confidential unless the client gives consent for it to be shared.

Consent Form: A legal document that the biological mother and father sign to allow their child to be placed for adoption. The court can validate these consents without the biological parents’ signature if a biological parent is unavailable.

Custody: The protective care or guardianship of someone or something.

D

De Facto Adoption: A legal agreement that a family will go through the legal adoption process to adopt a child. This agreement allows individuals to circumvent adoption procedures for limited purposes and will become a de jure adoption when a petition for adoption is properly presented.

Decree of Adoption: The legal order that finalizes an adoption.

Dissolution: An adoption that fails after finalization, which results in the child’s legal custody going back to the agency or court that originally placed the child. The child will then go to foster care and/or other adoptive parents.

Dossier: In an international adoption, the collection of paperwork needed to complete the adoption.

E

Equitable Adoption: A legal process used to establish inheritance rights of a child when the prospective adoptive parents enter into an oral contract to adopt that child. If a parent dies after a child has been placed with the parent but before the adoption is finalized, the child may then still have inheritance rights.

F

Fictive Kin: Individuals who aren’t related to a child biologically or by marriage but still have an emotionally significant relationship.

Final Adoption Decree: The legal document issued by the court that legally completes an adoption.

Finalization: When a court grants legal custody to the adoptive parents.

H

Home Study: A study conducted on all prospective adoptive parents by authorized adoption professionals. Generally, a home study is completed before the placement of a child in the home and validates the suitability of that family to adopt. While negative home studies are rare, they usually mean an adoption will not be authorized.

 

I

ICPC (Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children): The legal compact between states that allows for the placement of children for adoption across state lines.

ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978): A Federal Act that was designed to protect the interest of Native American children and tribes and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families.

Independent Adoption: An adoption that’s arranged privately by a third party, like a lawyer, or between the birth family and adoptive parents.

International adoption: The adoption of a child born outside of the United States.

L

Legal custody: Legal responsibility for a person. A guardian with legal custody makes decisions for a child.

Legal father: In adoption terms, the legal husband of a mother who may or may not be the biological father of the baby. He may also be referred to as the presumed father.

Legal guardian: Any person with legal custody who makes decisions for a minor.

Legal risk adoption: When an adoption process is started even though the prospective adoptive family can’t be guaranteed that the child is eligible for adoption. This may be because the biological parents still desire to parent, or there is a pending legal action that contests the validity of a surrender or of the court order that involuntarily terminated parental rights. One instance where an adoption may be a legal risk adoption is if there is an unknown birth father.

Legal Risk Placement: When a child is placed with a prospective adoptive family even though the child is not yet legally free for adoption. In this instance, either the parental rights of the birth parents have not been terminated, or the termination is being contested.

M

Multi-Ethnic Placement Act: A federal law enacted in 1994 that forbids the delay or denial of any adoption due to race, color, or national origin of the child or of the adoptive parents.

O

Open adoption: An adoption in which birth parents and adoptive parents meet and possibly exchange identifying information, although the exact terms of an open adoption vary depending on those involved. Communication may continue indefinitely.

P

Petition: A written request to the court for legal custody, guardianship, and/or the adoption of a child.

Putative Father Registry: Also known as the Birth Father Registry. A Stage registry where alleged paternity can be listed. Birth fathers have the opportunity to protest the birth mother’s adoption plan. Around half of the states have a putative father registry, including Missouri. Kansas has a similar system that allows potential fathers to voluntarily claim paternity.

R

Re-Adoption: The process by which international adoptive parents adoption their children a second time in front of a judge from the United States.

Relinquishment: When birth parents consent to adoption and give up all rights to a child. This may also be referred to as consent or surrender.

Revoke: When the birth parents take back consent to an adoption. Depending on where the birth mother lives, some states have a time limit while revocation while others don’t allow it at all.

S

Search and Consent Procedures: A process that authorizes an agency to help locate another party to the adoption to determine if the second party is willing for identified information to be released or to meet with the requesting party. If the second party is willing, the court may then authorize the disclosure of information.

Semi-open adoption: An adoption in which the birth parents and adoptive family exchange non-identifying information. After the child is placed, the adoptive family’s contact with the birth family might involve communication sent through an agency or attorney who helped with the child’s placement.

T

Termination of parental rights (TPR): The legal process that voluntarily or involuntarily terminates a parent’s rights to a child.

Transracial adoption: The adoption of a child who is of a different race than the adoptive parents.

Transfer of Custody: The legal process of terminating one party’s parental rights and awarding them to another party.

V

Voluntary Adoption Registry: A reunion registry system that allows adoptees, biological siblings, and birth parents to find one another if they wish to.

W

Waiting Period: The time period which must occur between birth and the time when the birth mother can consent to the adoption. This period varies on a state-by-state basis; in Missouri, it’s 48 hours. In Kansas, it’s 12 hours.

As a prospective adoptive family, you’re likely equally excited and nervous for the process of finding a prospective birth mother. After all, this is the moment when your adoption becomes a reality and you know that it’s only a matter of time until you become parents.

However, waiting to be chosen by an expectant mother can be stressful. So, how can you shorten your wait to be chosen?

One of the most useful factors is your adoptive family profile — a description of your family, your lifestyle and your commitment to adoption. Usually presented in a book or flier form, these profiles are shown to pregnant mothers considering adoption to help them choose the perfect family for their unborn child.

When you work with attorney Michael Belfonte, you will also have the assistance of American Adoptions, a national adoption agency that has perfected how to make an adoption profile book. You will be provided not only adoption profile book ideas and examples, but also the necessary tools to make the perfect adoptive family profile for you.

Here’s what you need to know about making an adoptive family profile in Kansas City:

1. What does an adoptive family profile include?
   Many adoption professionals, including American Adoptions, encourage families to create a physical adoptive family profile, either in the form of a book or a paper flier, to help social workers match prospective adoptive families and birth mothers.If you work with Michael Belfonte and American Adoptions, your physical adoptive family profile will be designed by a media specialist into an attractive paper profile that resembles a brochure. This profile will include pictures of you and content written by you, which will describe:
   • Your family, including your love story and why you want to be adoptive parents
   • Your home (your community and house)
   • Your lifestyle (what you do for a living, what your hobbies and interests are)
   • How you will raise an adopted child
   • Your extended family and family traditions
   • And more

   To help you find an adoption opportunity even more quickly, American Adoptions offers an adoptive family video profile service. Prospective birth mothers can learn a lot more about prospective adoptive parents from a video, including what they sound like, how they interact with each other and family members and even what they’d be like as parents. All that you have to do is film footage with provided cameras and video kits, and the media specialists at American Adoptions will do the rest.

   Video profiles usually include footage of:

   • The prospective adoptive parents interacting with children
   • The prospective adoptive parents talking about their desire to be parents and to adopt a child
   • The prospective adoptive family going through their everyday routine
   • Friends and family of the prospective adoptive parents talking about what they’re like
   • And more

2. How do we make an adoptive family profile?
   When you choose Michael Belfonte and his associates at American Adoptions, they’ll do most of the work for you. How to make an adoption profile book with us is a fairly simple process.First, you will fill out information for everything from your hobbies to your favorites to your reason for choosing adoption. You’ll also be required to submit photos of your family and write letters to prospective birth mothers about why you’re choosing adoption, how you will raise your adopted child and what her adoption choice will mean to you.

   Once this information is filled out, it will be given to a media specialist, who will complete your adoption profile design. Once the profile is completed, it will be sent back to for edits or your final approval — and then it will go live on American Adoptions’ website and social workers will begin showing your profile to prospective birth mothers.

3. Where can we find examples of adoption profile books?
   When you work with an adoption professional, they will likely provide you adoption profile book examples to view while you’re working on yours. You can also view examples of profiles and videos completed by American Adoptions online.

4. What are some tips for creating an adoptive family profile?
   Your media specialist will work closely with you to make sure your profile is optimized for presentation to a prospective birth mother, but there’s no way one way to make a “perfect” adoptive family profile. However, there is some common advice to keep in mind:
   • Be respectful. Adoption is a difficult choice to make, and some prospective birth mothers may still have reservations about adoption. Use language that indicates your gratitude for her considering adoption, but don’t write as if she has already made up her mind. Always refer to the unborn child as her
   • Be descriptive. Remember that this is the first chance a prospective birth mother has at visualizing her child’s life with you as their parents. Don’t feel like you have to write a novel, but include as many details as you can to help paint a picture of what you would be like as parents.
   • Be honest. There’s no need to be formal with your emotions here; the more that a prospective birth mother can sense your genuine desire to be parents, the more likely she will be to pick you. Don’t be afraid to mention how you came to the decision of adoption, whether it’s due to infertility or another reason. This same reasoning goes to photos and descriptions; try to represent your everyday life with natural clothes and candid photos.

Creating an adoptive family profile need not be stressful — instead, it should be a fun opportunity. Don’t overthink the process, and make sure your personality and passion to be parents stand out more than anything else. There’s no “perfect” way for how to write an adoption profile, so just as long as the profile accurately represents who you are, it’s perfect for you.

Remember, attorney Michael Belfonte and his associates at American Adoptions are here to help you as you create your adoptive family profile. To begin the process today or to learn more about how to adopt a baby in Kansas City, give Michael a call at 816-842-3580 or contact American Adoptions at 1-800-ADOPTION.