Evaluating the Risks
The adoption process will always have more than its fair share of risk and uncertainty. Every placing parent is going to have her/his own unique personality and expectations, and is going to have individualized needs and concerns that must be properly addressed in order for the adoption of her/his child to take place, and every adopting parent will have concerns as well. Finding the best "match" between placing and adopting parents is the goal.
Keep It In Perspective
Assessing the risks that are present in an adoption is a valuable exercise for adopting parents to go through, but if this evaluation process is not kept in proper perspective and recognized for what it is and what it is not, it could be counterproductive. Getting involved in over-evaluating or over-emphasizing the risks of an adoption can unnecessarily heighten the stress and can even erase a significant portion of the happiness and excitement that should be part of their journey through the adoption process.
Things to Consider
In evaluating any adoption opportunity, prospective adoptive parents must always look closely at medical, financial, legal, and emotional risks that will be associated with that opportunity. They must then determine if the result of an evaluation in each of these areas falls within an acceptable range for them (and what works for one couple may not work for another). This will help them determine not only if a particular adoption opportunity is "right" for them, but also if they are "right" for that adoption, based on a realistic comparison of the existing risks with their own personal comfort level.
Since prospective adoptive parents will usually have very little first-hand experience in evaluating the risks that are involved with an adoption opportunity, they may need to rely on the opinions and advice of their adoption attorney, counselor, or caseworker, in order to decide if the particular opportunity has a likelihood of being successful, and if so, whether or not they feel confident and comfortable in pursuing it.
Using the Worksheet
The risk evaluation worksheet on the next page is not intended to frighten or scare you about specific uncertainties and risks, or to make you think these are going to be present in every adoption.
What this risk evaluation worksheet is designed to do is to help you identify the areas of potential risk in your particular adoption opportunity, and to help you evaluate the potential significance of each potential risk. This will allow you to see what things you can work on in order to improve your chances of having an enjoyable and successful adoption experience. If using this worksheet upsets you in any way, we would prefer that you don't use it at all, since creating unwanted stress in your life is not the goal of this exercise. Remember: You don't need to use this worksheet in order to have a very successful adoption experience, or even to be able to adequately evaluate an adoption opportunity. It is intended only to be a tool to help you in your search for the right adoption opportunity for you.
At best, the risk assessment process will be imprecise and highly subjective. The number values that have been assigned to each potential risk area in this worksheet are simply estimates of their relative values, based entirely on our experience in the area of adoption. The experience base of our group includes a birthmother, a successful adoptive parent and an attorney with over 23 years of experience in the area of adoption. This does not necessarily mean that our estimates are any better than estimates that you might use yourself, but this will give you a good starting point for reference. Please feel free to change any of our valuation numbers or valuation criteria in any way that you feel would be helpful or appropriate for you and your unique circumstances.
It is also important to realize that your numeric "score" on this worksheet will not necessarily be an accurate indication of whether your adoption will be successful or not. It is very common for what we might consider to be a "high risk" adoption to turn out just fine, while an adoption that we might otherwise consider to be very "low risk" would not happen.
Do not use this worksheet as an advance "predictor" of the possible success of your adoption opportunity, but rather as a tool to help you identify and evaluate what you could be doing to improve your chances of having a successful adoption experience. If you use the worksheet in this way, we feel that it will be of a significant help to you. Good luck, and enjoy your journey through the wonderful world of adoption!
Take our Free Online Adoption Risk Evaluation
