If you are a resident of California or Hawaii and you’ve decided an open domestic adoption is the right path for you, good choice. Here are the steps to bringing your baby home.

1. Start Your Home Study. Click to view the domestic Home Study process. This takes about 6-8 weeks, depending on how quickly your paperwork comes in. Expedite services are also available.

2. Sign up with our Domestic Adoption Program. You will fill out a separate application. You can do this either when you hit the half-way point or have completed your home study.

3. Begin Meetings with Domestic Coordinator. The first meetings is all about birth moms, from the first phone call to how it works at the hospital and everything in between. We’ll teach you how to make your letters and profile books in the second meeting. Bring your photos!

4. Make Profile Books and Do Your Mailing. This is a great time to pull in friends and family that want to be involved in your adoption process.

5. Wait. This is the hard part we know, but we invite you to call for pep talks or encouragement along the way. You will get through it!

6. Match is Made Official. You’ve had a successful conversation and a meeting with your birth mom now. We will guide you in keeping in contact during the rest of her pregnancy, as well as iron out the details of the future contact agreement and what’s going to happen at the hospital. You may not necessarily want to set up the nursery yet, but be sure to have the essentials on hand for delivery.

7. Placement is Made. In most cases, you will discharge your baby from the hospital. The legal relinquishment process is taken from the birth mother after she is discharged from the hospital. In most California cases, the relinquishments are legally binding about 2 weeks after delivery, but there are many factors that determine this that we are happy to explain in more detail over the phone or in person. Also at this time, we will walk you through the details of terminating the birth father’s rights. Unless he is participating in signing relinquishments, a termination of parental rights needs to be filed through the court and may take a few weeks. We will walk you through this process and connect you with an attorney if you do not already have one.

8. Post Placement Supervision. You will visit your social worker one time in the first 30 days after placement, then 1-3 more times spread out over the next six months, depending on the state in which you will finalize. Your social worker is a wealth of information that would be a shame to waste, so don’t! Everyone adjusts differently so fire away with your questions, concerns, and bragging rights.

9. Finalization. Once you’ve completed your post placements, you are ready to finalize your adoption in court. We will compile all of your documents and write a recommendation to the judge so that you can receive your final Adoption Decree and a new birth certificate with your names as the parents. Don’t forget a snap shot with the judge for your baby album!

Your journey through adoption doesn’t end here. You are now part of ADOPT’s forever adoption family. Be part of our support groups, meet families like yours at our party’s and picnics, and/or be a resource to new families. We sincerely hope that you will stay connected, through newsletters, social media and celebratory events.