With a private adoption the children tend to be healthy newborns or young infants. The problem for parents seeking newborns is that there are few available, making for a long wait, because single women who give birth prefer to raise their children. Those mothers who decide to place their child usually ask the help of a private agency licensed to place children.
You don't choose your child -- the birthmother chooses you. The private agency must provide the birthmother with at least three family profiles. She chooses based on attributes important to her: values, lifestyle, education, cultural heritage, etc. If chosen you get the social and medical histories of the birth parents.
For its services an agency charges adoptive parents $6,000 to $10,000, a fee which tends to put private adoption out of reach for lower-income parents. To find an agency, see Agencies, Canada and U.S., www.familyhelper.net/arc/col.html.
In Canada, for each province's role in private adoption see the ministries listed at "Provincial Government Adoption Services", in Domestic Public Adoption.
AdoptionConnections.ca, www.adoptionconnections.ca. Prospective adoptive parents pay a one-time fee ($349) to place a profile (photographs, birthparent letter) in the Waiting Parent Registry. Forum. Shelley Ibbotson, Kitchener, Ont.
AdoptionProfiles.ca,
www.adoptionprofiles.ca. Helping prospective parents adopt domestically, by designing and printing an adoption profile page ($130) for adoption workers to present to potential birthmothers. Charmaine Graham, Komoka, Ont.
A Family At Last, www.vifamily.ca/library/transition/312/312.html#1. Judith Wine adopts privately in Ontario. Transition magazine. Summer 2001.
All About Domestic Adoption, www.familyhelper.net/fh/fhdom.html. Covers both domestic public and domestic private adoption. Robin Hilborn, Family Helper.
Canada Adopts!, www.canadaadopts.com. Adoption alternatives for Canadians. Lists of professionals. Discussion boards. Those interested in domestic private adoption may post a profile: a "Dear Birthmother" letter and two photos in a personal web site ($245). Parent profile writing service, $495. Lawrence Morton.
Home study: Adoption Home Study Process, www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_homstu.cfm. Types of information collected during the home study process. Tips for the interview and home visit. Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2004.
Home study: My Home Study, www.MyHomeStudy.org. Database to match parents-to-be seeking a home study with U.S. agencies and social workers providing them. New York NY.
Domestic Infant Adoption Advice, www.openadoption.org/bbetzen. Recommendations after 28 years in child placement work, for those placing a child, or those wanting to adopt. Bill Betzen, Dallas TX.
Our Gang, fivegoofs.tripod.com. Personal site of Marcia Talbot, who adopted from Ontario.
Private Adoption, www.familyhelper.net/ad/prpr.html. Process described. Family Helper.
Private Adoption - Ontario, www.children.gov.on.ca/mcys/english/programs/child/adoption/private.asp. Agency services, cost. Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services.
Private Adoption Practitioners Approved to Conduct Homestudies - Ontario, www.children.gov.on.ca/mcys/english/resources/publications/child-practitioners.asp. In Ontario, contact information, by city, for over 100 private practitioners (usually a social worker) approved by the ministry to conduct adoption homestudies and supervise adoption placements. Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services.
Provincial Adoption Co-ordinators - Canada, www.familyhelper.net/ad/adcoor.html. Provincial officials responsible for adoptions. Robin Hilborn, Family Helper.
What to Look for in an Adoption Agency, adoption.about.com/od/agenciesandproviders/a/adoptionagency.htm. Positive and negative signs. About.Com.