Foster-to-Adopt:

This is a form of adoption where a child will be placed in a foster home for a family to foster, but with the expectation that they will become legally free and available to be adopted by the fostering family.

International Adoption:

The process by which a child born in one country becomes part of a family in another country through adoption.

Private/Independent Adoption:

A legal process where prospective adoptive parents and a birth mother arrange an adoption directly without a licensed adoption agency.

Relative Adoption:

This is the permanent legal transfer of all parental rights and responsibilities from the biological parents to the relative. Once an adoption is finalized, the relative is the child’s legal parent in every sense of the word, and biological parents no longer have any legal claim to the child.

Core Moral Concern

Children have a right to be raised by their biological parents and parents have a reciprocal right to raise their biological children*. In tragic cases, when parents cannot or will not fulfill their duty to the children they created, the child's right to her parents must be fulfilled in the best way possible- matching her with adults who will parent her. Adoption, then, creates a permanent family for this child in hopes to restore what has been taken from her: parents who love her (that is they are willing to sacrifice for her good, putting her needs before their desires) and with whom she can bond, and a safe, forever home to feel secure in.

Separation of children from their biological parents causes trauma in any scenario and so adoptive parents must enter the relationship aware of this injury and interested in helping to heal it. (Read: Nancy Verrier's The Primal Wound)

Sometimes in current American culture, we hear adoption talked about from the perspective of fulfilling adult desires to have children. The desire to have children is one embedded in us by God and we recognize the beauty of it. While this desire is generally a piece of a successful adoption, we must guard against it becoming the main motivation. Adoption exists primarily to restore the rights of the child, not to fulfill adult longings.

We must also be cautious of when and how we offer adoption as an answer in crisis pregnancies. If the mother is at all willing to parent, although there may be serious hurdles to overcome, our goal should be to help her (and in best cases, the father also) overcome those hurdles and parent her child. With a willing mother, how many hurdles could be conquered on the path to successful parenting with the dollar amount that adoption typically costs? We may have become too flippant in the pro-life movement with the "adoption option".

Another interesting thought to explore as a solution in crisis is temporary guardianship. Maybe Mom isn't ready or interested now, but that's not to say she never will be.

*This is not to say that adults have the right to a child- to conceive a child in any way that technology avails us.

Local Resources

Explore regional support networks, community agencies, and legal steps for the adoption journey.

Indiana DCS Adoption Page

Nightlight Christian Adoption Agencies

Pathway Community Church TrueVine

Gateway Woods

Questions or want to learn more? Contact us.
rlni@ichooselife.org | (260) 471-1849