Common Terms Involving Adoptions

When adopting, you will encounter a lot of new and unique terms. To help you understand them better, here are some of the terms and what they mean.

Adoption: is a legal process in which adoptive parents are given the legal parental rights of a child.

Adoption Agencies: are legal organizations that are in place to help children who are abandoned or given up to find families that are fit to take care of them

Adoption Attorney: are specialized lawyers that are trained to handle all the legalities that an adoption process goes through.

Adoption Certificate or Decree: is the most important document; it needs to be signed by a Judge to finalize the adoption. This certificate gives the new parent the right to have a new birth certificate for the child. It is also known as Certificate of Adoption.

Adoption Facilitator: is a person that will aid a potential adoptive parent to find a child that they can adopt.

Adoptive Parent: this is a person that is granted legal parental rights of a child, by appropriate legal guidelines.

Birthparents: are the original or biological parents of a child.

Confidential Adoption or Closed Adoption: this is where all documents are sealed and that both adoptive and birth parents are not given information about the other. Plus, information is also closed to the public.

Consent Form: this is a document that is signed by both biological parents, telling legally that they are terminating their parental rights of the child.

Finalization: that last step in the adoption process, where the adoptive parents are granted the adoption.

Hague Convention (for international adoption); this is an agreement that was signed and approved by more than 35 countries worldwide. This convention was set up to protect the interest of all parties; children, birth and adoptive families involved in an international adoption. It was also established to help eliminate the black market for children.

Home Study: is something that is done by the adoption agency, it’s a look at the potential adoptive parents. It has to be done to legally adopt. It is typically an evaluation of your relationship, parenting style, medical history, inspections of the residence, financial status, employment and the need to check for any criminal background.

Matching: it is a process that is all in the interest of the child, their legal guardian or birthparent might determine the best interest of the child by choosing the right adoptive parent for them.

Open adoption: this can be considered a public adoption, which means that all parties concerned have been given information about one another.

Orphan: it is mostly heard if you are going for an international adoption; it is used for children that have no living parents or that have been abandoned. In order to adopt a foreign child he or she needs to be legally classified as an orphan.

Orphanage: is an institute that is mostly run by the county, where children are placed if they are abandoned, orphaned or when they can’t be taken care of by their parents.

Parental Rights: is a legal right that parents have on their children, a legal obligation that comes with being a parent of a child, biological or adopted.

Placement: is the date in which the child goes to live with his or her new parent (adoptive parent).

Private Adoption: is an adoption that is taking place between the adoptive parents and the biological parent, without the help of an agency.

Relinquishment: is when the biological parent forfeits legally their rights before the adoption, which means the parental rights are now transferred to an agency or the state, before the adoption.

Special Needs Children: children with disabilities either physical or mental.