Can I Have a Family After Placing My Baby for Adoption?
Adoption can mean a lot of things to different people. For one mother, putting her baby up for adoption might be about making sure she doesn’t raise a child she wasn’t ready for. For another, it could mean that she doesn’t have the resources to care for a child. Not all adoptive mothers are uninterested in motherhood. In fact, many people we work with go on to become parents later on. Adoption Choices of Arizona wants you to know why you can absolutely have a family after placing your baby for adoption.
If you need adoption help now, please call or text us at 1-480-900-5520 or visit us at Adoption Choices of Arizona.
The Lack of Federally Mandated Parental Leave
One of the biggest reasons many mothers choose adoption is financial instability. Even married mothers may not be able to take the financial hit of losing a source of income for several months. Adoption agencies in Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff help provide mothers with financial support to mothers who choose to put their child up for adoption.
But what about those who wish to raise their child? Unfortunately, the United States doesn’t have guaranteed parental leave at all for many mothers. For those who do get parental leave, that may just mean 12 weeks of unpaid leave. And if you have ever made a budget before, you know that 12 weeks without work isn’t going to pay any bills.
Adoption Doesn’t Make You a Bad Mother
We know how easy it is to judge yourself for deciding for your benefit. Sure, everybody on the internet is always talking about self-care. They say to take long baths and to let yourself binge cooking shows every now and then. Yet, it still can feel like doing these things is somehow just being lazy or selfish.
However, taking care of yourself isn’t selfish in the slightest. If you have ever been on an airplane, you might be familiar with their instructions. The video always says to secure on your own oxygen mask first. Why? Because if you don’t help yourself, you won’t be able to help other people well either. The best way to make sure you can help people is to help yourself sometimes.
The same goes for adoption. If you can’t raise a child at the moment, then you can’t raise a child at that moment. But in a couple of years? Maybe you’re ready now to raise a child. Putting your child up for adoption when you can’t take care of them properly is a brave choice.
Plus, you aren’t the only one who is benefiting. Adoptive families often wait months on lists for the opportunity to adopt a child. LGBTQ+ couples only have the choice to raise a child through adoption or foster care. Meanwhile, your child will have the opportunity to be with a family who is ready to take care of them. Adoptive children agree: they love their parents just like how non-adopted children love their parents.
Adoption Choices of Arizona wants you to see that adoption isn’t selfish at all. It helps you, it helps the adoptive family, and it helps your child have a childhood they’ll love.
Staying in Touch with your Child Post-Adoption
When most mothers think of adoption, they think of closed adoptions. Closed adoptions are those in which no identifying information is shared between the adoptive family and the birth mother. As a result, even when adopted children look for their birth parents, they may not ever be able to find them.
Nowadays, most mothers opt for more open adoptions. In these adoptions, you can exchange identifying information with the adoptive family and may even get to see your child from time to time. They can know who you are and grow up knowing that their birth parents and adoptive parents have lots of love to give to them. When you interview the adoptive family, you can discuss how you would like the adoption to go. If you’d rather just get pictures and videos of your child growing up or send the occasional letter, that’s totally alright too!
Having a Family After Placing Your Baby for Adoption
Adoption Choices of Arizona wants you to know that you can have a family after placing your baby the adoption. Due to the laws of the United States, we understand that many mothers have trouble affording a pregnancy. Also, we know that many birth mothers would raise their child if they had the chance. Even if a mother chooses adoption, they can stay in touch with their child as well. So if you would like to learn a little more about adoption, contact Adoption Choices of Arizona today!
For adoption resources or to begin your adoption journey, birth parents can visit us at Adoption Choices of Arizona or call or text us at 1-480-900-5520. If you are a prospective adoptive family hoping to adopt a baby, please instead, visit us here!
Meet the author: Joshua Boulet is an aspiring journalist and writer with a particular fondness for research and social sciences. He loves music, writing, reading, video games and most art, and anything creative he can get his hands on. Boulet believes that there’s too much good stuff out there and not enough time to see it all. He grew up on video games: the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, Mario Kart, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Legend of Zelda. The music of rhythm games led him to an interest in that, and the investigative journalism of Jason Schreier inspired him to discover the importance of journalism as an industry. That interest in developers’ lives led him to an interest in social justice and how the world could maybe be made into a better place. “All this to say, there is certainly a line I can draw between me obsessively playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and me interviewing my sociology professor about how to read academic articles. Those surprising through lines fascinate me all the same. At my best, I’m a person who gets to be constantly fascinated by the lives and work of other people.”
His favorite quote is from his favorite jazz musician:
“A genius is the one most like himself” – Thelonious Monk.
