Adoptions

Adoption is the perfect option, not only for an expectant mother facing an unexpected crisis pregnancy, but for nurturing, loving persons seeking a child with whom to share their lives, and most importantly for a child seeking a safe, secure family that will give them a forever home. If you are considering the adoption option, where do you begin your journey?

WRITER: JIM GIBSON PHOTOGRAPHER: FRED LOPEZ

After a sixteen hour flight across the Pacific with little to no sleep, she should have been tired. But as the plane taxied across the runway toward the massive terminal building in Beijing, Sabrina Ciceri was filled with excitement… and fear. This was the culmination of ten months of endless paperwork, a large amount of money (which included over $7,000 in cash hidden in a money belt strapped beneath her clothing), sleepless nights, and what seemed like a lifetime of dreams.

Sabrina and her husband, Joe, were in China to pick up their adopted daughter Lian Guo Chang. Lian was for Lian Jiang, the city in which she was found lying in a small box at the end of a bridge wearing nothing but a blue T-shirt and socks; Guo means China; and Chang described her as “developing well.” At the orphanage she was simply known as “Chang Chang.”

They spent several days in Beijing learning a bit about Chinese culture as they prepared to travel south to the city of Guan Zhou where their daughter-to-be lived in a state-ran orphanage. Once there, they discovered their daughter had been known simply as Girl #2064 before orphanage officials had given her the temporary name she now had.

When the orphanage director called their name, Sabrina and Joe walked forward, handed him $3,000 in cash (they accept cash only), and a worker handed them a receipt — and their daughter.

“I can’t describe to you what I felt when they brought her out to us and put her in my arms,” Sabrina says. “I could say it was love at first sight but having seen pictures of her through the adoption agency, I was already in love with her before I ever touched her.”

Sabrina and Joe, who live in Yalaha, had gone through a long, arduous international adoption process that ended up costing them approximately $25,000 to adopt their now eight-year-old daughter, who they named Mia. Not all of the cost was immediate.

“We were relying on God to help us, and He did,” Sabrina says. “Each step we took, we prayed and somehow someway the money would become available.”

Sabrina was a part-time nurse and Joe was an electrician. Following the birth of their son, Tristan, in 1997, Joe had decided to have a vasectomy knowing Sabrina had adverse physical reactions to contraceptives. At the time the couple had a daughter, Sierra, and thought they would be content with two children… plus, financial times were hard. As time went by, their children grew, their finances improved, and they found themselves wanting a larger family.

When they found that the cost of reversing Joe’s vasectomy would be approximately $10,000 and carried only a twenty percent chance of being successful, they began to look into adoption.

“The first place I started was with local agencies and I just seemed to hit a brick wall,” Sabrina says. “So, one day I am standing in line at the grocery store next to a woman with an Asian child. I struck up a conversation with her and found she had adopted her Chineseborn daughter through an agency. Her name was Jane Glance and her daughter’s name is Josie. She gave me her phone number and I began to consider an international adoption.”

Several weeks later, while talking with a friend, Sabrina learned the friend’s sister was baby-sitting for a neighbor, and that neighbor turned out to be Jane Glance. Sabrina took it as a sign to move forward with her attempt at an international adoption. She immediately contacted The Great Wall China Adoption Agency, a Texas-based agency specializing in connecting American families wishing to adopt with available Chinese orphans.

“You just can’t believe the paperwork involved in an international adoption,” she says. “It was so daunting. Then, Jane told me to contact Pam Eidson in Jacksonville who would assist us in preparing all the paperwork for approximately $500. I couldn’t believe it and I immediately hired Pam to help us. The work she did was tremendous. She had knowledge of the system, and she prepared in weeks what it would have taken us months to do. This is the part of the process that discourages most people and turns them away from adoption, but if they can get this type of professional help, it makes all the difference in the world.”

The process was daunting, but for the Ciceris, it paid off; they now have a beautiful eight-year-old daughter who brightens their lives daily. Many parents who have been languishing in the adoption process are surely thinking how lucky the Ciceris were to only wait a mere ten months to be connected with their daughter. For others, it can literally take years to adopt a child.

The changing face of adoption

International adoptions take place when the child is located anywhere in the world outside these locations. Each country has its own set of adoption criteria, and some of them are quite stringent. There are private agencies that can help you navigate the international waters of adoption, and there are also government agencies that can help you locate the ones that best fit your needs.

Domestic or international adoptions may be open or closed adoptions.

115,000

Open adoptions allow varying degrees of contact between the adopted child and his or her biological family. This contact can be as close as daily visits or as distant as occasional phone calls or cards and letters. This type of adoption permits the child to maintain some form of meaningful contact with biological family, which may include siblings who are still either at home with one or both of the birth parents or who have been adopted by a different family or are members of the foster care system.

2,700

22,990

423,000

The process and focus of adoption we see today is constantly evolving. In nineteenth century America, orphaned children who were homed in institutions were many times shipped from overcrowded cities to country farms as indentured labor. Not until President Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s declared the sanctity of family as paramount did adoption reform begin to shape the process into what we know today. In present-day society, the American system of adoption has become the gold standard and is slowly but surely being utilized worldwide.

There are two overall types of adoption: domestic and international.

A domestic adoption takes place when the child is located within the boundaries of the United States or one of its territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Northern Marianas, or American Samoa.

In closed adoptions, all court documents concerning the adoptive process are sealed and there is no contact allowed between the child and his or her biological parents. The adoptive parents have no information as to the identity of the biological parents, and this lack of contact extends to them, also. All parties, including the adopted child do have access to nonidentifying information concerning one another and in some states, at age 18, the child may gain access to both nonidentifying and identifying information from these sealed documents concerning their birth parents.

Nonidentifying information may include such information as the adopted child’s date and place of birth, a general physical description of their biological parents, along with their race, medical history, occupation at the time of the adoption, and their reason for placing the child up for adoption.

Identifying information includes all the above and the specific identities of the biological parents. Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Connecticut have varying restrictions concerning the release of identifying information. Different states have different restrictions and anyone desiring information concerning either nonidentifying or identifying information through finalized court documents should go to Child Welfare Information Gateway’s National Foster Care and Adoption Directory and search under Accessing Adoption Records: www.childwelfare.gov/nfcad.

The adoption process

In the State of Florida, any minor or adult may be adopted domestically, and any minor may be adopted internationally through either the independent adoption process or through a state-certified agency. Any adult of any age who is considered physically able, of good character, and who has the ability to provide for and nurture a child may adopt a child, whether that person is married or single, straight or gay.

The independent process allows adoptions to take place privately between two consenting parties and is presided over by an attorney. Agency adoptions may be through either a public or private agency. Private agencies must be licensed by the state through the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and DCF is the only public agency with the legal ability to place a child for adoption. Every adoption that takes place, whether agency or independent, must be reported to the state court system.

The public system of foster care and adoption

According to William Russo, an adoption information specialist with Florida’s Adoption Information Center, in the past all adoptions that took place in the state used to be handled directly by DCF. “Nine years ago, DCF started contracting with outside private agencies called community-based care agencies to help handle the caseload in certain areas of the state,” he says. For residents of Lake and Sumter counties, that community-based agency is Kids Central, Inc.

Kids Central is a not-for-profit, private agency selected by the State of Florida to manage the care of abused, neglected, and abandoned children in Lake, Sumter, Marion, Hernando, and Citrus counties (Circuit 5). The preponderance of children who enter the adoption system enter through the state, and for our area, that means they come through Kids Central.

physically challenged. In this instance this is not the case. Special needs may simply mean the child is older than eight-years-old, they may be a black or racially-mixed child, or may have a sibling in the system with them. A person wanting to adopt a child needs to take a careful look at all the children available.”

2%

Adopted children who make up of the total U.S. child population under the age of 18†

65,000

Children in foster care who are placed in institutions or group homes, not in traditional foster homes†

Ms. Gibbs points out that virtually all the children coming through Kids Central are labeled special needs. “These children have been taken out of the family home by DCF personnel and put into foster care,” she says. “There can be several siblings, the children in the same family can vary widely in age, and in some cases they can have mental, emotional, or physical disabilities. We immediately try to place them with relatives if possible. If relatives cannot be found, then the child will be temporarily placed with one of the many families who have signed up as foster parents in this area. If the biological parents’ parental rights are terminated by the courts, then the child will be eligible for adoption. In some instances, the foster parents end up falling in love with the child or children they are keeping and end up adopting them. The majority of times relatives of the child come forward and adopt the child. Those left remaining in the system have to wait for an adoptive parent to come along.”

40%

Will spend over three years in foster care before being adopted†

33%

Children in foster care who have changed elementary schools five or more times†

Local public adoption

According to Kids Central Permanency Director Sharon Gibbs, these are the children who have suffered neglect in some form and are now in state care. If a parent chooses to attempt the adoption of a child in this system, they must contact Kids Central or Youth and Family Alternatives, Inc. (YFA), a contracted agent with Kids Central that handles adoptions for this area.

The children can range in age from 0–18 years old. They may have siblings and it is state policy to only separate siblings after all other resources have been exhausted. According to Russo, most of the children will be labeled as “special needs.”

“Many people are fooled by the words ‘special needs’,” he says. “They think it means these children may be developmentally or

According to Ms. Gibbs, through the public foster care system, foster families are paid $517 per month for children aged 0–12 and $589 for children aged 13–17 per month to help defray the cost of raising the child for families of limited means who want to be foster parents.

To learn more about becoming a foster parent, you can go the Kids Central website at www.kidscentralinc.org or call 352.873.6332.

Once a child is in the system and available for adoption that is where YFA comes in, and these are the steps you must take to become an adoptive parent utilizing the state’s child welfare system through YFA: Contact YFA at 352.253.5625. You will be provided information to any questions you may have, and you will be invited to attend the next scheduled orientation.

You must then attend an orientation meeting that will provide an opportunity for you to learn more about adopting and decide if this may be right for you and your family.

Next, you must attend a thirty-hour Model Approach to Partnership in Parenting (MAPP) class — a required ten-week class for all prospective or adoptive parents. MAPP classes are provided free-of-charge and are held at different locations and times throughout the area. Generally, you will attend MAPP classes one night a week for three hours per session for ten weeks. Classes are held during weekday evenings and weekends to accommodate working families.

You must also satisfy all background screening requirements. A YFA adoption case management coordinator will assist you in this process. Generally, you and all members of your household will undergo a local law enforcement check, FBI and FDLE clearance, and abuse registry clearance. In addition, you must satisfy character references including personal and job-related references.

You must also provide information regarding your personal history. A YFA adoption case management coordinator will conduct a personal history interview in your home on at least two occasions. The information collected during these home visits will be compiled into a home study and submitted for approval. Public home studies are free but there can be charges when going through a private agency. Sabrina Ciceri notes that if you have a home study done through a private company it is very important to find the right person to conduct the study in order for it to be completed quickly. The cost for her home study was approximately $1,200 and was good for only one year..

You must complete all required paperwork and home inspections. Once again, a YFA adoption case management coordinator will assist you with this. In general, your home must pass a health inspection and be free from all safety concerns.

Once all criteria have been met, your home will be licensed to receive a foster child or you will be ready for an adoptive match.

Placement of a child in your home will be made based on the needs of the foster or adoptive child.

Once families adopt a child through the child welfare system, they receive a standard subsidy of $417 per month. Once the child reaches college age his or her tuition at any state university, community college, or vocational school in Florida is paid for by the state in an effort to encourage adoptive families to advance the children’s lives in a positive direction and to support adoptive parents with educational expenses.

Adoptive children receiving monthly subsidies receive Medicaid until age eighteen and the maximum federal adoption tax credit is $13,170 for each child. Eligible adoptive parents receive this credit even if they owe no tax for that year. For more information, visit www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc607.html.

Private Agencies

There are other ways children find their way into the adoption system. Some may be born in hospitals to women who choose not to parent the child or others may come by a woman choosing early in her pregnancy to create an adoption plan for a child born when she is facing an unexpected crisis pregnancy. She may then choose to go through either the public or private system by contacting an agency or an attorney who handles independent adoptions.

Private adoption agencies that handle many of these voluntary adoptions. One such agency is the Catholic Charities of Central Florida (CCCF). Many of the steps involved in adopting through CCCF mirror those of the public adoption system.

CCCF requires families seeking to adopt to attend a thirteenhour education and training program that is held on Saturdays. This is followed by a home study that usually takes three months to complete. As per Florida law, CCCF provides post placement supervision every thirty days until the adoption is finalized.

“Here at CCCF, we charge a $15,000 flat rate for adoptions,” says Pregnancy and Adoption Counselor Leesa Elliott. “Once the training program and home study are completed, we ask that adoptive parents pay $2,500. Then when the child is placed with them, we ask for an additional $7,500, and the remaining $5,000 is due in approximately six months later just prior to finalization in the court system.”

CCCF offers prices not readily seen elsewhere in the adoptive process. Virtually all domestic newborn adoptions range from $20,000 to $40,000 and most international adoptions range from