C2Adopt is here to support your lifetime adoption journey. We provide placement, support, and education services to waiting children, potential and existing adoptive families, expecting families and birth parents, and adult adoptees through our Waiting Child and Infant Adoption programs.
Waiting Child Adoption Program
Waiting children need permanent families through reconnection to birth family or fictive kin or through adoption. The majority of children and youth waiting foster care are ages 8 and older. They need what every child needs: to be part of a family, to be treated with kindness and respect, to be nurtured, to have fun, and to have a stable and secure family. Children who leave the foster care system without a permanent family are at an increased risk of dropping out of school, becoming incarcerated, and/or becoming homeless. They often require community mental health and welfare assistance programs. These children deserve so much more from us. C2Adopt offers the training and support families interested in this type of adoption will need to successfully adopt and parent a child who has lived in foster care. Please read about some of Virginia’s Waiting Children on our Waiting Children page.
For additional information on how to adopt from the foster care system, please click on our Waiting Child Process document.
Frequently Asked Questions
We encourage families to look at profiles of children waiting for placement on sites such as AdoptUSKids and others that we can share with you. In addition, C2Adopt has a grant program where we are recruiting for specific children in Virginia and we will share those profiles with our families as well. Once you identify a child you are interested in parenting, we assist you in getting your home study assessment to the child’s social worker so they can learn about you and assess if they feel you would be an appropriate match. The matching process could take weeks or months depending on the social worker or team and how their process for deciding on a family takes place. You will have say at each step to assess for yourself if this is still a child whose needs you can meet as you learn additional information. Our staff will support, guide and help you to process and understand the child’s history, behaviors and needs so you can make an informed decision if you are selected as a match.
It is possible that the child you match with does still have contact with birth family members. You will know this early in the process and it will be discussed how and whether the child should be able to continue this contact. C2Adopt does encourage families to get educated about why on-going connection to birth family is important to children and to get comfortable with the possibility. It is also possible that your child as they age, will remember birth family members names and do their own outreach once they are old enough for social media and are independently using the internet. All families should be prepared to share birth family information and be prepared for the possibility of contact with birth family members.
There are numerous reasons that may cause a child to end up in foster care. Typically it is due to a charge of neglect (physical, medical, educational or emotional) and/or abuse (physical, sexual, or emotional) against their birth parents or whoever was their primary caregiver. State and Federal law requires all efforts be made to reunite the child with their birth parents or extended family when possible. When those avenues have been exhausted or have not been successful, we see the child’s goal change from reunification to adoption.
Anytime a child is compelled to move from one family setting to another; or from family to a institutional setting (group home, hospital, residential treatment) it is disruptive to that child’s safety and stability. That creates a trauma event or multiple events. In addition, the child is frequently moved because of other trauma events such as neglectful caregiving or abusive behavior. We cannot predict how each individual child will react and respond to the trauma that has occurred but we do know they will need time and help to heal. The best way for healing to occur is within the safety and security of a permanent placement – with unconditional care and nurturing that an adoptive family could provide. Behaviors of children in foster care can be mild to severe. Families interested in learning more should attend our next Orientation Meeting.
Infant Adoption Program
C2Adopt considers “family preservation” as the first, best option for children and will explore that with any pregnant client as the first consideration. If an adoption plan is going to be made, C2Adopt believes a fully open adoption plan is the best way to meet all the current and future needs of the child who will be placed. There are two legal processes available in Virginia: Agency Adoption and Parental Placement Adoption. Both types allow for the mother and father to make an individualized adoption plan and to choose the family who will parent their child. No matter which legal process is used, expecting parents receive counseling, support, and assistance in exploring all of their options and in gathering resources.
If a parent decides to make an adoption plan, C2Adopt is able to assist with a Parental Placement Adoption (a term unique to Virginia). Parental Placement is a direct placement from placing parents to adoptive parents without an agency ever taking legal or physical custody of the child. The placing parent(s) choose the adoptive family with whom they wish to place their child, usually prior to the birth of the child. This agency requires that all of the parents meet at least once “simultaneously” to exchange information such as names, contact information, medical, and family history. While there is no longer a legal requirement for this meeting or for the exchange of identifying information, this agency requires this of all clients who use our Infant Adoption Services. C2Adopt believes that it is in a child’s best interest for ALL information to be shared and will require the exchange of names and addresses and full background information if you choose to work with us.
Our staff knows that the decision to adopt a child or to place your child for adoption are life-changing events, and we are here to make sure that our clients feel supported from the beginning and for as long as they want and need our services. C2Adopt is committed to a lifetime partnership with our families. For more details on how Parental Placement adoption occur, please review our Parental Placement Process document.
Frequently Asked Questions
While this is no universally accepted single definition of an “open adoption”, C2Adopt defines it as an adoption where the biological parents and adopting parents have met one another, exchanged identifying information and have mutually agreed upon on-going contact and communication.
You should find and attend Orientation or Information Meetings with multiple different agencies. You will need a licensed agency to complete a home study assessment. While that assessment is being done, you will have the opportunity to be educated about both the legal process of adoption and, more importantly, the lifelong impacts of adoption on you, your child, your child’s birth family and your extended family. We advise families to carefully consider and learn from the perspective of adopted people, birth families and other adoptive families. There is a wide variety of ways to learn from all of those groups – books, websites, social media, etc…C2Adopt can connect you to numerous resources.
Please see our document Home Study Assessment Process for details on what to expect has you complete this assessment with C2Adopt.
C2Adopt has been sharing with our clients that the wait for an infant placement is often 2 – 3 years or more. Infant adoptions are occurring at a declining rate for a number of reasons. Women have more options and education to avoid and prevent unplanned pregnancies; women have access to abortion in most states if they do not wish to remain pregnant; women have more options for help and assistance with parenting and single parenthood is no longer as stigmatized has it was in our history in the United States. There are also significantly more families waiting and prepared to adopt when an infant placement is available. C2Adopt never promises or guarantees that a family using our Infant Adoption services will achieve a placement. We support and encourage families to have realistic expectations and to consider using other legal avenues for finding a potential situation and not to rely solely on C2Adopt to match you to a situation.
Ready for the Next Step?
If you are an individual or married couple wanting to adopt a child from foster care or through a domestic infant adoption, please send us your contact information and we will email you our Information Packet.