Adopting a Child without Using an Agency—The Benefits and Risks of Independent Adoption Though public perception often seems to indicate that most families seeking to adopt work with an adoption agency, statistics show that private or independent adoptions are far more common. Though five states require the use of an adoption agency, agency adoptions typically […]

Open Adoption—The Option to Maintain Regular Contact For many, the idea of an open adoption is a little unnerving. Adoptive parents fear that they’ll continually run into the birth parents at the mall or the grocery store, and that children will have a difficult time understanding that their adoptive home is now their home. Studies […]