You Are Not Alone

The decision is ultimately yours to make. AGAPE is here to offer a listening ear, provide you with resources if necessary, and assist you in navigating this challenging choice. Loving your child may lead you to decide on parenting, and AGAPE can support you in envisioning what this will entail in your life. Alternatively, loving your child might involve creating an adoption plan and selecting a family who will cherish your child as deeply as you.

Adoption is a profoundly loving decision that enables another family to become your child's family. If you find yourself unable to parent and provide for your baby as you wish, adoption may be a compassionate choice. By creating an adoption plan, you retain some control over your child's future, including selecting the adoptive family and determining the level of contact you will have as your child grows.

AGAPE will work with you for no cost. We will be a listening ear, a connection to resources such as Medicaid, help with transportation to doctor's appointments, and support you and your baby in whatever ways you need.

AGAPE workers will connect you with resources, such as Medicaid, Best Start, and counseling so that you can take advantage of services available to you and your growing family. AGAPE will ensure that you have enough food to keep you and your baby healthy. While there is no financial compensation for making an adoption plan, AGAPE will make sure that you are safe and healthy.

Yes! You will be presented with profile books from which you will choose who will adopt your baby. These books include photos of the adoptive couple, their families and friends, and some of their interests. The profile books are intended to help you picture what your child's life will be like as he/she grows up with the family you choose.

Adoptive families go through a rigorous vetting process before being approved to adopt. They have been cleared by the FBI and ABI and have clean records proven by positive child abuse and neglect screenings. In additon, social workers from AGAPE spend hours speaking with and interviewing adoptive families to ensure they are likely to be loving and compassionate parents. Adoptive families receive training about the importance of openness in adoption and parenting techniques.

If you would like, you can meet adoptive families before your baby enters their home and together with the adoptive family you can make a plan for exchanging letters and pictures and visiting in the future.

AGAPE encourages adoptive families to be flexible concerning the amount of contact they will have with biological families after placement. Each adoption is unique. Some biological families visit with their child and adoptive family regularly, and some are more comfortable receiving update letters and pictures through AGAPE. You will discuss these options at length with your AGAPE worker until you create a plan with which you are most comfortable. An AGAPE worker will then screen out families who do not desire the same amount of openness as you.

Open adoption refers to a wide range of communication between biological and adoptive families. Research shows that children, biological families, and adoptive families all benefit from open adoption. Adoptive families will share pictures, letters, and encourage visits throughout your child's life.

The amount of communication between you, the adoptive family, and your child is largely dependent on your comfort level. An AGAPE worker will help you make an open adoption plan that you feel most benefits you and your child.

Adoptions can remain confidential if you choose. When you enter the hospital to deliver you can request to be entered confidentially and the hospital staff will not be able to confirm your presence even if they recieve a phone call specifically asking for you. Your social worker at AGAPE will never reveal that we are working with you. If you choose to remain anonymous, even to the adoptive family, that can be arranged. Attorneys who work with the adoptive family will protect your identity as well.

If a woman does not name a biological father for the baby, an attorney will publish the woman's name in a newspaper to search for the father before an adoption can take place. If the father is named, social workers will make reasonable efforts to locate and speak with the father to recieve his consent for the adoption.

Biological fathers enjoy the same rights as biological mothers when making an adoption plan for a child. If the biological father is named, social workers will make every reasonable effort to locate the father and speak with him about the adoption plan. He can choose to sign relinquishment papers or choose to parent the child.

If the biological father is not named, the adoptive family's attorney will search for him after the baby is placed in the adoptive family's home. The attorney will publish an ad in a local newspaper seeking paternity information and using the biological mother's first name and last initial. The ad will run for 4 weeks. If no biological father presents himself during that time, the adoption will proceed as planned and the biological father will lose his rights.

AGAPE encourages all pregnant women to seek appropriate medical care as soon possible in your pregnancy. Our workers will apply for Medicaid with you, if you are not covered by health insurance, and provide transportation to doctor's visits to ensure your health and the health of the baby. Using drugs, alcohol, or tobacco during pregnancy is associated with higher risks to you and your child. AGAPE will help you discontinue use as soon as possible. If your child is born with special needs, there are adoptive families who will gladly adopt, cherish, and love your child.

Give us a call at 256-859-4481 or text us at 256-327-5437 and ask to speak with a social worker. We will talk to you any time, day or night!