Adoptive Parent Frequently Asked Questions

We work hard everyday to ensure all of our families, both biological and adoptive, receive the highest quality of support and service. Haven charges a flat fee to adoptive parents for services provided throughout the adoption process. There are three phases of the flat fee schedule – joining the Active Waiting List, joining the FITT Matching Program and when you match. Our fees do not include legal fees paid to an outside attorney, ICPC work if out of state and mileage for home study and post placements.

There are many factors involved in determining how long the adoption process will take. If the adoptive family is open to adopting various races, adopting either gender, are open to various levels of contact with birth parents and possible substance exposure, the more biological mother opportunities they will submit to, therefore shortening their wait time. If the adoptive family prefers to only submit to certain situations, they’re submitting less and therefore could have a longer wait time. What Haven Adoptions offers is a caseworker that will be able to discuss in depth your personal preferences and be able to give an estimation based on prior matches.

No. What differentiates Haven Adoptions from other agencies is there is no wait list for adoptive parents! Each biological mother situation that Haven Adoptions works with is presented to every prospective adoptive family. Regardless of the prospective adoptive families preferences regarding race, gender, etc. they will view each biological mother situation.

Absolutely! Haven Adoptions offers our prospective adoptive families the F.I.T.T Program (Forever in This Together). This program allows adoptive parent(s) to receive pertinent information on specific adoption opportunities. All birth parent opportunities vary and are unique, which can match up with adoptive parents’ personal preferences. This allows adoptive parents to be able to choose the specific opportunities that they are interested in.

Each prospective adoptive family will work with our graphic designer to create an adoption profile. This adoption profile is filled with pictures, captions, and text that will reflect you, your family, friends, home, interests, hobbies, vacations, holidays, etc. Your caseworker will go over this process with you, provide a general format, and show you samples. Our graphic designer will create a beautiful, one-of- a-kind profile that represents your life. We take care of all printing, mailing hard copies to our office and creating a PDF version for you.

Haven Adoptions works with all family types. We do not discriminate based on any factors. We do not have any religious affiliations. We work with singles, same sex, cohabitating and married couples, and families who already have adoptive children or biological children.

There are varying levels of openness in adoption. Sometimes the biological parents are hoping for a visit with the adoptive family before the birth of the baby and once a year after the baby is born. This would take place in a mutually agreed upon meeting place between the biological parents and adoptive family. The most common type of open adoption would include some kind of contact before birth (phone, text, email, possible face to face meeting) and a picture/letter update once or twice a year from birth until age 18. A closed adoption means that the biological parents and/or the adoptive family is not looking to have any contact with each other.

In most cases, adoptive families will receive background information. A caseworker works extensively with the biological parents before the opportunity is shared with prospective adoptive families. Biological parents are asked to provide a proof of pregnancy, sign a medical release form, and fill out a medical background questionnaire as well as a social history questionnaire. Sometimes pictures are included. Non-identifying information will be passed along to the prospective adoptive families.