Love begins g locally y

Area Adoption Agencies

Angels of Love Adoption Agency (Private)

140 South Main Street, Brooksville 34601

Contact Jill Bopp at 352.585.9988

(Infant, special needs, home studies)

Catholic Charities of Central Florida (Private)

1321 Sunshine Avenue, Leesburg 34748

Call 1.888.658.2828

(Infants, special needs, home studies)

Christian Home and Bible School (Private)

301 W. 13th Ave. Mount Dora, FL 32757

Contact Chuck Shepherd at 352.383.9906

(Infants/special needs/home studies)

Florida Adoption Service (Private)

531 N Bay St, Eustis, FL 32726

Contact Brian Welke at 352.357.4020

Great Wall China Adoption (Private)

2189 Mariner Boulevard, Spring Hill 34609

Contact Susan Flemer at 352.666.4853

(Infants/special needs/home studies)

Kids Central, Inc. (Public)

2117 SW Highway 484

Ocala, FL 34473

Call 352.873.6332

Mother Goose Adoption of Florida, Inc. (Private)

327 West Alfred Street, Tavares 32778

Call 1.866.892.2229

(International, infant, special needs)

Youth and Family Alternatives (Public)

880 South Duncan Drive, Tavares 32778 Call 352.253.5625

SOURCES: John Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Rena issance, University of Chicago Press 1998: Martin Gottlieb, The Foundling: The Story of the New York Foundling Hospital, Lanter n Books 2002: Domestic Adoption: The Types of Adoption Available in America; http://www.adopt.org/assembled/types.html: Adoption In Florida Pamphlet; http://www.fl oridabar.org/tfb/tfbconsum.nsf/48e76203493b82ad852567090070c9b9/40018bdf1f308fe985256b2f006c5c11?opendocument:

Adoption Cost? ;http://www.theadoptionguide.com/cost/articles/how-much-does-adoption-cost: Benefi ts of Adopting Florida’s Chil dren; http://www.adoptfl orida.org/benefi ts.shtml: Steps to Becoming a Foster Parent; http://www.yfainc.org/foster-parent.php

$25,000 to $50,000. Ms. Gibbs says there are very minimal costs associated with the adoption of a child through the child welfare system and no administrative costs whatsoever. For some adoptive parents this means no cost at all, as all fees are paid by the state.

CCCF also provides opportunities for those families who have adopted through Catholic Charities to meet at least one time each year to develop a support system for adoptive families. When needed they have a “cradle care” program to care for infants after discharge from the hospital. Infants stay with “cradle care parents” until they are placed with their adoptive parents, which is usually from one night to two months depending on the circumstances involved.

CCCF deals primarily with children less than one-years-old but can place older children in certain instances. Families wishing to adopt can call CCCF at 1.888.658.2828 or visit their website at www. cflcc.org/adoption/home.

The adoption alternative

When it comes to unplanned pregnancies, the adoption alternative is as important to a young pregnant woman who finds herself facing an uncertain future as it is to childless parents seeking to adopt a child to complete their family.

Women need to be aware of the fact they can choose to have their child and make extensive adoption plans following the birth. “Young women have many rights when it comes to offering a child for adoption,” says Russo. “In many instances they can choose the family, who is carefully screened to receive their child. Many times all the necessary medical bills are paid by either the agency they go through to assist in the adoptive process or the adoptive parents. They can also choose whether to have contact with the child in the future and the extent of such contact.”

Elliott notes that with the CCCF program, the mother must wait at least forty-eight hours until after the child is born to sign the papers releasing her parental rights. The birth mother can also choose how many days she wants to spend with the child before the child is placed, how much contact she and the adoptive parents can share during this transition period, and, up until that forty-eight hour period has elapsed, choose not to go through with the adoption at all and parent the child herself.

Elliott stresses the fact that to CCCF, their adoption program is a ministry and is designed to help protect mother and child, not to look for children for adoptive parents. “Our goal is to preserve life,” she says. “We want women who are pregnant to know that life is precious and that there are families out there looking for children to share their love with.”

Local availability

According to Ciceri, who is presently attempting to adopt her next child through the foster care system, there are approximately two children per week who are either abandoned at local hospitals or the mother chooses to put the child up for adoption in Lake County. “There are 92 foster children in the Lake/Sumter system right now and there are too few foster families available to house them all. Some are being sent as far away as Hernando County to find a home,” she says. “This area has a great need for more foster families.”

Ms. Gibbs says there are currently 120 children available for adoption in Circuit 5, and fourteen of those children are in Lake and Sumter counties. Of those 120 children, approximately seven to ten are sibling groups currently available and she says YFA and Kids Central are strong advocates for keeping siblings together.

The depth of love

Five hundred dollars of the $7,000 in cash Sabrina carried in her money belt on her trip to China was set aside to buy her new daughter Mia presents for the future. “I wanted Mia to have a part of her homeland as a part of her life here with us,” she says. “So I bought her a present for each of her birthdays for the first twenty years of her life. I bought her a dress for each year. I bought her earrings for her wedding day. I bought her a hand-carved wood chest to keep her things in.

I wanted her to have that connection with where she came from to where she is today. I want that to be a part of her life. She was born Chinese; she is now Chinese-American; she was born biologically to another woman, but I am now her mother. I am sure her biological mother loved her as being a part of her physically, but now she is spiritually more a part of me. I am her mother, and she is my beautiful daughter. I couldn’t possibly love her any more than I do.”