When you arrive home with your child, a new and beautiful chapter is just beginning.
There will be practical considerations as well as strong emotions in store, and you will likely want to celebrate and share the news with friends and family. In this article, we will cover the basics of how to prepare for a child coming home in adoption. You can also get help for your adoption homecoming questions now when you click here.
1. Get Help from an Adoption Professional
Having an adoption professional by your side can make a big difference in your adoption experience. Our adoption specialists can help you with the following:
Preparing Your Home and Family through an In-Home Study—Before you are approved as a potential adoptive parent, you will go through the home study process with an adoption professional’s guidance. In this process, each member of your household will be interviewed, and a social worker will also review basic safety and preparedness. This allows you dedicated time to focus on preparing for your child’s homecoming.
Getting Educated about Adoption—Your adoption professional can explain to you some of the basics of adoption, connect you with learning resources, and answer any questions you have along your journey so that you feel prepared.
Open Adoption Planning—In addition to learning about the adoption process, your adoption professional can help you understand what open adoption means, what to expect, and how to prepare, as most modern infant adoptions are open adoptions due to the benefits.
Completing the Legal Steps of Adoption—Our adoption professionals are experienced in helping families complete adoptions, and can also connect you to legal help when necessary.
2. Learn About Parenting
Parenting can be a lifelong journey of discovery and growth. From learning about infant care and parenting styles to CPR training, safety, education and more, there are endless opportunities to learn.
Beyond guidance from an adoption professional, it may be helpful to seek out resources on parenting that can be applied whether you are adopting or giving birth yourself. Below are some options that you can seek out on your education journey:
- Parenting classes
- Parenting books, videos, and articles
- Babysitting or volunteering with children
- Talking to current parents
3. Have the Basics Ready
If you get help from an adoption professional and do some research on parenting, you will likely come across recommendations and make some tentative plans. With adoption, there is always a possibility that the plans may change, so you may not want to go overboard on buying or making plans too far ahead of time.
That being said, it can be a great idea to have the basics already prepared so that when the moment comes, you aren’t scrambling to get necessities.
- Go bag
- Car seat
- Food
- Bed
- Diapers
- Childcare plans
4. Be Ready to Share Your Adoption Journey
Adoption can be even more exciting when you share it with others who are excited to see your parenthood journey. Among those you should consider in your plans to share are your child’s birth parents, family, and friends.
This will be a very exciting time but also a time when you are taking on new responsibilities, and things may get hectic. The following can help you plan ahead so that when the time comes, it’s easy to let people share in your excitement and celebration.
Make Announcements Ahead—If you know you want to send out cards or e-cards soon after your child’s homecoming, setting up the cards before your child’s homecoming can help you. You can choose a printing company or template ahead of time and list out who to send the announcements to, then when the time comes, you can finish the details, add a picture and simply send.
Set Up Contact Groups—If you want a more casual way of interacting and updating people with this big step, you can set up group chats or shared photo albums with people to share details. For instance, you could set up a Google Drive or photo storage folder for close family members to share pictures and a group chat with friends and family to let them know when you’ll be arriving home and how they can help.
Make Check-In Reminders—If your adoption is open (and most are), then you will want to make sure that you are keeping up with the agreements you have come to with your child’s birth parents, especially in these first moments when emotions are heightened.
Making reminders on your phone or calendar to schedule a visit time, and send emails, texts, photos, or videos can help you stay on top of communication with your new responsibilities.
Organize Visits and Meals—You may have many excited friends and family members who want to help you and see your new baby. Since the first few days and weeks of parenthood can be especially taxing and exciting for new parents, it may be helpful to try to schedule visits, babysitting, or have a friend set up a meal train so that 5 people don’t show up at your door the same day with a tray of lasagna.
Get Help
No matter where you are in your adoption journey, our professionals at American Adoptions are here to help. Click here to get help now.
