If you’re thinking about growing your family through adoption in Iowa, you may be wondering how the process works. This can help you to understand what steps you’ll be going through should you decide to proceed with adoption, and it can also help you determine if this is the right move for your family.

The adoption journey, of course, will look somewhat different for everyone, but here’s a general outline of what happens in an Iowa adoption.

If you think that you're ready to talk to an adoption specialist about adoption in Iowa, reach out to us through our free online form, or call 1-800-ADOPTION.

Step 1: Choose to adopt a child in Iowa.

At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s important to determine that adoption is really right for you before you begin the process of adopting a baby in Iowa. If you have struggled with infertility, it’s crucial that you fully grieve that before committing to adopting a child and starting the Iowa adoption process. We understand that this is easier said than done, but it’s important that you are ready to love a child you adopt just as much as you would have loved a child that was biologically yours.

Step 2: Determine which kind of Iowa adoption is right for you.

After you’ve made the ultimate decision that your family does indeed want to adopt a baby in Iowa, you’ll have to get a little more specific. There are many types of adoption; do you specifically want to adopt a newborn, or would you also be interested in an older child adoption? Is it important to you that you complete an Iowa adoption or one from elsewhere in the U.S.? This is called a domestic adoption, but international adoption is an option as well.

After you’ve decided which kind of adoption is right for your family, you’re ready to begin the adoption process.

Step 3: Choose an adoption agency.

There are a few Iowa adoption agencies for you to choose from, depending heavily, of course, on which type of adoption you choose to pursue. Not surprisingly, we’re proud of the services we offer here at American Adoptions. No matter who you ultimately go with, though, you’ll want to ask certain questions regarding:

• Wait times

• Cost estimates

• Hidden fees

• The financial effects of a potential adoption disruption

• Financial protection

• The support and education offered both to adoptive families and to pregnant women

For more information about the services we provide at American Adoptions, please call 1-800-ADOPTION.

Step 4: Become active with American Adoptions.

You’ll have to meet certain requirements before completing an adoption in Iowa, and American Adoptions has additional standards its adoptive families must meet. These requirements include:

• Going through — and passing — the home study process, which is comprised of a documentation stage, interviews with each family member living in your home, and a home inspection

• Completing an Adoption Planning Questionnaire, or APQ, which will help your social worker understand what you’re looking for in an adoption opportunity and identify pregnant women that might be a good match for you

• Completing an Adoptive Family Profile, which gives a pregnant woman a chance to learn more about you and what kind of parents you might be if she were to choose to place her child with you

As a licensed home study provider in Iowa, American Adoptions has streamlined the home study process so that you can complete your home study with us faster and more efficiently than any other agency. Follow this link to begin your home study and to learn more about the services we offer.

Step 5: Get to know the prospective birth parents you match with.

After you have completed the steps listed above, you’ll become “active” with American Adoptions. This means that your profile will be shown to prospective birth mothers until one chooses to place her child with you. At this point, you now get to begin the process of getting to know her!

American Adoptions always recommends some degree of openness in an adoption situation. Everyone benefits — adoptive family, birth parents and adopted child alike — when communication is exchanged freely. However, you choose to handle that communication, be it through phone calls, emails, in-person visits or other methods, is completely up to you and the prospective birth mother you match with. Like all relationships, this can evolve over time as either party’s comfort level changes.

Step 6: Finalize your child’s adoption in Iowa.

Bringing your child home is exciting, to be sure, but it’s not quite the end of the road. After adopting a baby in Iowa, you will need to obtain his or her final decree of adoption at a finalization hearing. This gives a judge the opportunity to hear your case and confirm that the adoption has been completed legally and is in the child’s best interests. To learn more about the finalization process, see “How to Finalize Your Adoption in Iowa.”

Once you have your final decree of adoption, congratulations! You can expect to receive your child’s new Social Security card by mail a few weeks after the hearing, although this doesn’t mean the adoption process is completely finished. Instead, it’s a lifelong process. It will now be important for you to keep the lines of communication open with your child. Make sure that he or she always know their adoption story and that it’s one to be proud of!

For more information about adopting a baby in Iowa with our agency, please call American Adoptions at 1-800-ADOPTION.

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