Adopting an Older Child or Teenager in North Carolina

If you are in the beginning stages of your adoption research, you may be considering many different types of adoption. Aside from the domestic infant adoptions offered by A Child’s Hope, there are many other ways to adopt a child, including adopting older children or teenagers.

There are currently thousands of children available for adoption in the U.S. foster system. If you think you are ready to provide a permanent home and family for one of these adoptable children, you may want to consider older child adoption. Read on to learn more about your options for adopting an older child in North Carolina.

How to Adopt a Child with A Child’s Hope

Many families contact us wanting to know, “How do I adopt a child in North Carolina?”

While A Child’s Hope focuses primarily on domestic infant adoption, we have placed older children through our agency in the past. We have helped birth mothers make adoption plans for their infants, toddlers, and children as old as 8 years old. Our older child adoption process is as follows:

• A birth mother contacts us about placing an older child for adoption
• We meet with the child and his or her parents to get to know them better. We obtain medical records, provide counseling services, and help the family create an adoption plan
• We learn about the child and his or her interests to assist us in finding the perfect adoptive family
• We send the adoption opportunity to our current waiting families, as well as our past placed families, to find the right adoptive parents
• We meet with the adoptive family, the birth family and the child to ensure it is a good fit
• We facilitate several meetings and slowly transition the child to the adoptive family over time

Since 2000, most of our 317 adoptive placements have been newborn or infant adoptions. If you are exclusively interested in adopting an older child, you may want to consider an organization that focuses on facilitating these types of adoptive placements.

Where to Adopt a Child in North Carolina

Children awaiting adoption come from all different backgrounds and enter the foster system through no fault of their own. These children range in age from infants to teenagers, though most are older children in need of loving homes.

The following professionals can provide additional information and help you adopt a child who is waiting for a family in the North Carolina:

• NC Kids (Foster child adoption in North Carolina)
  1-877-NCKIDS-1
  This is a service for children who have been in foster care. There is no fee for adopting these children. Although we are not one of the agencies currently enrolled in their program, we encourage you to contact them and mention that you were referred by A Child’s Hope.
• Adopt US Kids (Nationwide)
  1-888-200-4005
  Adopt US Kids offers an array of services to both families and child welfare professionals, from tips and resources to an extensive database of children for adoption in U.S. foster care, as well as families who are home studied and approved to adopt. They have what you need to make your journey through foster care and adoption successful.
• Children’s Home Society (North Carolina)
  1-800-632-1400
  Children’s Home Society has a program that trains families and places them with older children waiting for adoption in safe and loving homes.
• The Dave Thomas Foundation (Nationwide)
  1-800-ASK-DTFA
  The Dave Thomas Foundation matches potential adoptive families with foster children up for adoption.

What Does it Take to Adopt a Child in North Carolina?

Whether you are adopting a toddler, child or teenager, every adoption requires a North Carolina home study completed by a licensed adoption agency. Many of the above resources will provide home study services for families signed with their adoption programs.

However, if you are adopting an older child and need home study services from a licensed professional, A Child’s Hope offers home studies, post-placement visits and updates throughout North Carolina. We do not require families to use our placement program in order to use our adoption home study services.

I Want to Adopt a Child – Now What?

To learn more about the process of adopting a child through A Child’s Hope or the North Carolina foster system, contact us to schedule a general family-building consultation. During the consultation, you will learn about many different types of adoption and get help deciding which option is the best fit for your family.

Speak with one of our adoption counselors. 


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