Answers to Adoption Questions for Adoptive Families

Do you still have questions about the adoption process? Below we've answered many of the questions that we are frequently asked. If you don't find the answers to your questions, please fill out our Questions and Feedback form and we'll answer your questions as soon as possible!

Lifetime's adoption program is very comprehensive and has an excellent reputation for providing successful, domestic adoptions. We facilitate between eight and 16 births per month, completing anywhere from 110 to 120 successful adoptions per year, primarily newborn adoptions.

Many families return to Lifetime for their second, or even their third adoption. Additionally, many new families seek to work with us based on recommendations from previous Lifetime families. We value the trust that adoptive families place in us, and are so blessed that our families spread the word about our services and our success.

Lifetime has purposely chosen to remain an adoption facilitator, despite many offers to merge with an adoption agency or adoption law firm. Our focus is on working with families and birth parents in helping them fulfill their personal goals for the good of the child. This is our one focus and we do it very well.

In the past, we have worked with waiting adoptive families referred from adoption agencies, family law attorneys, attorneys belonging to the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys (AAAA), and other adoption professionals, primarily when they are not getting the birthmother exposure they are seeking. Families are able to use their current home study and their local adoption attorney to complete their adoption. Lifetime Adoption is able to help them connect with a birthmother who matches what they are seeking, and who, in turn, is seeking a family just like them! Finding a birthmother is the hardest part of the adoption, and it is what Lifetime specializes in. Lifetime assists in over 120 adoptions a year, that is over 120 little ones finding the family that God has meant for them!

As an adoption facilitator, we are able to do nationwide birthmother outreach. We are not limited to a certain geographical location, as many adoption agencies are. Our birthparent outreach team takes full advantage of this opportunity, through our nationwide Yellow Pages campaign, our extensive Internet outreach, and by sending Lifetime brochures and materials to clinics, hospitals, and other locations where a birthmother is likely to be.

We are also able to work with families in most every state. This allows us a wider selection of families for birth parents to choose from. Some birth mothers desire their child to live in the mountains or near the ocean. Others may request a rural or urban home. Whatever the request, we know that with our nationwide variety of families, we are able to meet their needs.

We are very good at bringing families together through adoption. We work with birth parents in all 50 states. Birthmothers are able to work with an adoption facilitator regardless of their state.

If you have a question about adoption facilitators in your state, find help at American Adoption Law.

What are the main differences between an adoption agency and an adoption facilitator?

As an adoption facilitator, Lifetime typically offers more services to birthmothers than adoption agencies because we can offer a wide array of options, including phone, peer, or in-person counseling, assistance with basics like towels, sheets, and clothing (both maternity clothes and post-pregnancy outfits), and an active role in their adoption including the opportunity to choose the family, level of contact, and establishing a hospital plan – most importantly having the family there to take the baby home. In fact, many birthmothers choose an adoption facilitator because they feel more comfortable with their choices and options.

In an agency adoption, the birthmother will relinquish her parental rights directly to the adoption agency, who ultimately will place the baby with an adoptive family of the agency's choosing. With Lifetime, the birthmother will relinquish her rights directly to you, the adoptive family. Birthmothers are far more comfortable with this choice, and many are choosing to work with Lifetime in order to exercise their choices for their child. Each of us want to be able to choose for ourselves, and an adoption facilitator gives the birthmother the most access to choices, resulting in a far greater level of comfort and security with her decision to place her baby with you, her choice for parents.

For adoptive families, an adoption facilitator offers many advantages over an adoption agency. Total adoption cost is usually less with an adoption facilitator like Lifetime because a family only needs to pay for the services that they need. Also, because Lifetime works with so many families and adoption professionals, we have nationwide referrals to home study providers and attorneys, including those belonging to the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, which can save you money. We can help you find the resources you need!

Wait times may be less with Lifetime than with an adoption agency because we are able to work with birthmothers nationwide, many of which are eager to place their child in a state that is not their own. An adoption agency is typically limited to their own county or state. The result is that Lifetime works with far more birthmothers than the typical adoption agency. If you are looking into a local adoption agency, be sure to ask how many adoptions they complete each year. Lifetime completes over 120 adoptions every year!

Lifetime has been an adoption facilitator for more than 20 years, and is actively involved in efforts to license and regulate adoption facilitation. We maintain our business license and we are bonded. In addition, Mardie Caldwell, C.O.A.P., is a Certified Open Adoption Practitioner and has spoken before legislators in California to successfully pass adoption legislation. She is an advocate for open adoption and tighter regulation and licensing of adoption facilitators. She is an adoptive mother, an award-winning author, the radio talk show host of Let's Talk Adoption, and a nationally recognized expert in the field of adoption. Who better to lead the organization that helps you build your family through adoption!

Before making the choice to contract with any adoption professional, Lifetime strongly encourages families to contact other adoptive families who have used their services, as well as adoption attorneys familiar with the programs. Lifetime provides all prospective adoptive families with a list of references, including families and attorneys, who they may freely speak with about Lifetime's services.

We guarantee to our families that they will be well represented and will be seen by more birth parents than most organizations. Each family has coordinators and numerous support staff members to meet your adoption needs.

Many other organizations see only a few birth mothers a month. We have a number of prospective birth mothers contact us daily requesting specific types of families and profiles of specific families.

Many families call us and share how they get an answering machine every time they try to reach their agency, or that their attorney is in court for a week, unavailable. We can work with these same attorneys and agencies to locate children for their clients and be there when they are unavailable.

Each Lifetime family needs to provide Lifetime with profiles for distribution to matching birth mothers. Families also need to provide us with primary and secondary contact numbers. As long as we can present you to birth parents and reach you when they are interested, you are well on the way to a Lifetime Adoption .

With our program, there is never a need to wonder if someone is working on your behalf.

Your success rate is much higher than most other adoption professionals, why?

Our attention to detail has helped us maintain such a high success rate.

In the world of adoption, finding the right family for our birth parents and their children is the most important part of our business - completing adoptions where the birth family and adoptive parents have the same goal - the care and well-being of this little child.

Lifetime Adoption maintains many paths to finding the right match for each family. This includes a wide variety of services that other adoption professionals, both adoption agencies and adoption attorneys simply cannot provide. Lifetime provides things like Live Chat for birthmothers, 24-hour availability staffed by our own staff members (not just after-hours personnel), free adoption informational meetings, a program to help birthmothers get on their feet, ongoing education through live teleconferences and newsletters, and many websites geared at reaching birthmothers where they are.

When families are on a budget and time is critical, Lifetime proves time and again we can make your adoption happen. We have the best families to select from across the country and around the world. We are aware of the needs of our clients and have been where you are today. We have a fully staffed Adoption Center taking calls daily from women seeking families and families wishing to adopt. Our staff includes adoptive parents, birth mothers and caring individuals devoted to your adoption needs.

The ultimate benefit is the security in the competence of our experienced, qualified staff to screen birth parents to help keep you safe and secure. We want to help you with your Adoption for a Lifetime.

We are unique in that we have a larger professional support staff than most adoption professions. We currently have a team of 23 staff members. We also have outside counselors and social workers for counseling for birth families and adoptive parents as needed, who are dedicated to healthy and safe adoptions. Our entire staff is cross-trained to take the hundreds of calls we receive each week.

We feel we have been blessed with a wonderful success rate because of Lifetime's high ethics, our thorough screening process for all clients, and the dedicated staff who strive to provide excellent service to our clients. You will be working with a compassionate team and owners that are dedicated to healthy adoptions for all our children.

Lifetime Adoption provides services nationwide from our main Center located in the historical gold mining town of Rough & Ready in Northern California. We also have an office in Nevada City, California which houses our administrative office, editorial team, advertising department, and bookkeeping. We are 60 minutes northeast of the State Capitol in Sacramento and 90 minutes West from Reno, Nevada. 95% of our clients live outside of the local area.

I have heard that you offer free adoption informational meetings. How do I get more information on this?

If you are interested in our free adoption informational meetings, we have two methods for you to participate in. These meetings are open to prospective families that are considering adopting and want to know more about the adoption process and Lifetime Adoption . The meetings are normally 2 ½ hours long. Space is limited so reservations are encouraged.

The meetings are currently held in our adoption center, near Grass Valley in Northern California, approximately one hour from Sacramento. We are considering other locations across the country. Please check our site under Adoption News for scheduled meetings.

Another way to obtain information is to through one of our free teleseminars. Teleseminars are held monthly and can be attended in the comfort of your home or office by telephone. Currently scheduled teleseminars can be found in our Adoption News.

We live out of town, and would like to meet in person. Is this possible?

Yes. We welcome prospective parents to come and meet our staff and visit our Center in Rough & Ready, California . We are open during the week for visitors. If you are interested in a private consultation in our office please call 530-432-7373 for an appointment. There is no charge for phone conferences.

There is a charge for a one hour private consultation in our office. The fee is then credited toward your facilitation fee when you contract. Please email or call for more details. Most questions can be easily answered free of charge by phone.

We will send you information on lodging and Bed & Breakfast accommodations in our area and directions. Visitors may fly into Sacramento International Airport in Sacramento or the Reno/Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nevada for a short 60 to 90 minute drive. We hold private consultations during the week and on selected weekends. Please call if you are interested.

Our website is the best place to begin learning about Lifetime. These Frequently Asked Questions are updated regularly to help families like yours learn more about us and the services we offer. To learn even more, please be sure to visit all of the pages in our Adoptive Families section. Explore the section of our website for Birthmothers as well. Of special note to any family is our Birthmothers Seeking Families page. It lists most all of the unmatched birth mothers we are currently working with as they seek to prepare an adoption plan for their child. This page is updated most every day and will give you an idea of the type of situations that we can help you with.

If you are interested in working with Lifetime, the first step is to complete our free application. It is available online via our secure server. Once we have received and processed your application, Lifetime will be happy to provide you with a list of previous adoptive family and professional references. We'll provide the phone numbers and email addresses of these people we've worked with so that you may speak with others who have adopted through and worked with Lifetime.

At any time, you are welcome to come to our offices and meet with us in person. You will need to schedule a visit with our application coordinator by calling 530-432-7373.

We are members in good standing with the Better Business Bureau, and you may view our record online at BBBonline.

About Lifetime's Safe and Successful Adoption Program

Open adoption can mean many things, from just speaking over the phone with a birthmother, or having a single meeting with your birthmother, to ongoing letters and photos, phone calls, or visits after the adoption. The degree of contact is something to be agreed upon between the adoptive parents and the birth parents.

Lifetime Adoption supports some degree of openness among all members of the adoption triad (the birth parents, adoptive families, and children). It is widely believed that such openness, in most adoptions, is in the best interest of all parties, and has proven to result in safer adoptions with fewer reclaims.

For you, the adoptive parent, it is also helpful to have the opportunity to know your child's medical history. With some conditions it is vital to know of any medical problems that may arise as the child grows into adulthood. In addition, should a rare situation arise that your child needs something from a biological relative, you would be able to find one easily.

Many birth parents seek contact through periodic letters and photos, or possibly phone calls, from the adoptive family. In most all cases, birth parents who choose open adoption are simply seeking reassurance that their birth child is growing up safe and happy.

Some birth families do not want any further contact after the adoption until the child is 18 years old. The choice is as much the birth parents' as it is yours. The degree of openness you seek will be taken into consideration during the matching process.

To learn more about open adoption, visit Open Adoption .

Our fastest matches have been within 24 hours of contracting, some within a few weeks or months, and others within 18 months. Most families will match within three to 12 months of the time they have submitted their presentation profiles to Lifetime.

There are a number of things that can affect a family’s match time. One of them is how open the family is in their adoption preferences. The more open you are to race, age, gender, substance exposure and birth parent contact, the more situations you will be shown to. This results in more opportunities to be selected.

Much also depends on the quality of your presentation profile which is a combination of your Dear Birth Parent letter and photos of your life. Lifetime provides each family with a coordinator who works with the family to develop the best profile possible. We also provide sample profiles and our exclusive PowerPoint presentation, Creating Your Lifetime Profile, that will give you the step-by-step information you need.

For bi-racial and African American families, a match is typically in place within a few weeks to four months of contracting with Lifetime. Often in these situations, we receive birthmother phone calls from the hospital, just prior to a baby being born. When this happens, we immediately contact our contracted families for these situations. For more information, please visit our African American Enrichment Program.

No, Lifetime does not require a fee to apply.

Most organizations charge an application fee, however Lifetime's application process is free. We feel it is important to assess your situation and determine if we can help you in building your family, without charging a fee.

You can fill out a secure application on our site by clicking here, or request one be emailed to you. Please be sure to submit a current photo of your family with your application.

Our review committee will review your completed application and you should hear within 10 to 14 days if we feel you match the criteria that our birthmothers are currently seeking.

Please note, your application will not be processed until a photo is received. You may submit your photo via regular mail or scan it and email it to us. Please be sure to add your name to the photo or email.

Please email photos to apply@lifetimeadoption.com.

You can mail your photo to our office at:

Lifetime Adoption
17860 Cattle Drive
Rough & Ready, CA 95975

Once we receive your completed application and photo, please allow two weeks to thoroughly process your file. We will then be in touch with you via the email address and phone number that you have provided in your application. Please check your voice mail and email frequently should we have questions regarding your application.

The first step toward working with Lifetime is to fill out a secure application on our site by clicking here, or request one be emailed to you. Please be sure to submit a current photo of your family with the application. Your application will not be processed until a photo is received. You may submit your photo via regular mail or scan it and email it to us. Please be sure to add your name to the photo or email.

You can mail your photo to our office at:

Lifetime Adoption
17860 Cattle Drive
Rough & Ready, CA 95975

Once we receive your completed application and photo, please allow two weeks to thoroughly process your file. We will then be in touch with you via the email address or phone number that you have provided in your application.

If you are new to adoption, or new to open adoption, we highly recommend you read the new book, AdoptingOnline.com. It was written by Lifetime’s CEO and Founder, Mardie Caldwell, and is an excellent book to help anyone interested in adoption.

Lifetime does not typically operate on a waiting list basis. On occasion we may open up a waiting list if we have an overabundance of families with specific preferences that are identical to each other or very specific, such as with gender. You will be alerted if there will be a wait for you to enter our program when you have your one-on-one conference, if your application is pre-approved.

If you are a Lifetime client, your coordinator is presenting you to each birthmother who matches your criteria, regardless of when you began working with Lifetime.

Lifetime does allow clients to be quite specific in regards to gender and race, however we urge families to understand that the more open they can be, the more opportunities they will have to be chosen sooner.

All families who have remained in the program and followed our instructions have been offered a child. We work hard to help this happen sooner rather than later. As with any program, some families will drop out for various personal reasons.

Success often depends on how soon the adoptive family provides us with their adoption profiles and the quality of their profiles. Because of this, the process can move more quickly or sometimes more slowly. This doesn’t mean that one family is more desirable than another, but a match often depends on timing.

We have a proven method that works. When families take each step in Lifetime's adoption process, success is reached. If one of the steps is not followed, it can delay the family in their adoption.

We are unable to accept all families that apply. We try to accept families that we feel are what our birth parents are seeking when they come to Lifetime. This doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with the families we don’t accept, but by pure numbers and fairness to the other families, we must limit the amount of families we work with, allowing all families working with Lifetime an opportunity to adopt.

We offer a unique feature in our contract that allows families to “freeze” their adoption contract for up to nine months for emergencies. Some families have chosen to freeze their contract for situations such as military deployment, a family illness, moving or, if they should become pregnant during the adoption process.

All of our families who have stayed in the adoption program and followed the requested steps have been offered an adoption situation that meets their criteria.

We have families that contract and then never provide profiles, or turn down numerous birthmothers or children that meet their exact requirements. We allow families choices: you do not have to accept any birthmother you are not comfortable with, but you should not turn down a situation for frivolous reasons.

Adoptive families must be prepared to move quickly, should a situation require it. With any pregnancy, either one’s own or through a birth mother, we can’t always plan around convenience or scheduled events.

We ask our families to be available to birth mothers and to commit to the process of adoption. We work hard for our families to help them find their Lifetime child. We screen our adoptive families to be sure that all parties are eager to adopt. Occasionally, families have left the program due to divorce, death, family problems, pregnancy, various emergencies, or other personal issues. We do offer a unique nine-month freeze period to adoptive families who may be going through a difficult time in their lives for any reason. This option enables a family to take a break from the adoption process while not using any of their contracted time, and not losing any money.

How do we handle the paperwork for our adoption, since we live in a different state?

We have been working with adoptive families and birthmothers nationwide since 1986. In fact, the majority of our families are not in our state, so we have purposefully developed our program to work with families across the nation.

Most adoptions are between your home state and the birth mothers state. For example - you might live in Texas and your birth mother might be in Ohio. In such a case, California is not even involved in the legal paperwork.

All of the paperwork Lifetime requires can be done by mail, fax, or email. It is not mandatory to travel to meet us, unless you would like to. The choice is yours, and we are always happy to meet families in person when they come to visit.

You are welcome anytime to come to our center and meet our staff at any time during the week, simply call to schedule an appointment. Some adoptive families like to visit if they are in the area on vacation, business, or live in California.

Often we are able to meet our families when they come to pick up their child if the adoption is in California. This is always an exciting time for our staff.

Lifetime is unique in that we provide our contracted families with a number of ways to contact us for any emergencies that come up. We have cell phones, pagers, email, a 24-hour answering service, and fax.

Unlike most organizations, Lifetime has staff available on call every holiday to take calls from birthmothers around the clock. This is a time when most other organizations are closed. We are also available for emergencies and birth mother calls on the weekends and evenings, seven days a week. This can be very important if your birth mother goes into labor after hours.

Lifetime is dedicated to your success, no matter what time or day of the week it happens to be.

At Lifetime we want to protect our adoptive families and birth parents from disappointment by screening both parties. Prospective birth parents contact Lifetime via phone, email, or by walking into our offices. Once we can verify and confirm the readiness of a birth parent for adoption, your adoption coordinator will contact you directly, to find out if you are interested in speaking to the birth parents. Birth parents will not be given any contact information for you until you have agreed to speak.

Prior to that call, families can be assured that we have spoken with the birth parent a number of times and feel they are dedicated to an adoption plan. If we have concerns, we will certainly share them with you prior to you speaking. Through Lifetime’s screening process, before we ever call an adoptive family, we achieve a certain degree of confidence regarding each situation we are working with.

Lifetime Adoption will share with birth parents your first names and other non-identifying information. You have the option of giving as much or as little information to the birth mother matched with you as you deem appropriate. We do not disclose your income or where you work to birth parents; this is left up to the adoptive family. Most families feel very comfortable after meeting their birthmother and want her to feel comfortable with the family that will parent her child.

Each state requires some information be given to the birth parents. Most birthmothers are wonderful women with a simple need to know that you are safe and can care for the child she has trusted you with. It is very important for you to keep your commitments to her regarding ongoing contact, by following through with letters and photos after the adoption, or visits if you agreed to them.

Lifetime can help you determine what is best for your family; we just ask that you keep your promises and commitments to your birthmother.

To learn more about open adoption and birthmother relationships, please explore the following resources:

A Look at Open Adoption

Yes. The adoption profile is a combination of your Dear Birth Parent letter and photos of your life. This is the tool we use to present you to birthmothers. We help you to develop your profile by providing you with suggestions, tools for training, as well as sample profiles that have produced successful adoptions. Your coordinator will work with you extensively to help you design and create the best profile possible. We can also provide you with referrals to companies that can design your profile for you, if needed.

We have an exclusive multi-media presentation, Creating Your Lifetime Profile, that is sent to all Lifetime Families. This beautiful CD will inspire your creativity as you strive to make your profile a reflection of your family in a way that will make you stand out to birthmothers.

We will create and host your personal adoption web page profile. We have a web team that will create your adoption web pages for you, and all of this is included in our fee.

Each family is given a page in our unique Lifetime Adoption Magazine to share their story with thousands of readers seeking families for their children and for medical professionals seeking help for their patients. For your web page and magazine page, all you need to do is provide us with the photos and the text, and we’ll take care of the rest.

As soon as you are contracted with Lifetime, you are available for any situation that matches your criteria. You will be accessible to a large number of prospective birth parents, generally in their fifth to seventh month of pregnancy.

Our adoptive parents are prepared and given opportunities to be presented to any prospective birth mother we are working with. All we ask is that adoptive parents keep us stocked with plenty of profiles so that we can present you to those situations that meet your preferences.

You will also be added to our website once your profile is complete. This will give you 24 hour a day access to our online birthmothers.

If the child is already born, you will be able to speak to the birth parent as soon as we have the required paperwork from the birth parent or guardian. We will present the birthparent with every family that matches her preferences. If a birth parent is interested in speaking to you or meeting, we will call you with background information. If you choose to go forward, we will arrange a meeting or phone call between you and the birth parents.

When a birth mother requests families be sent to her, how is it determined what families she receives?

When we speak with a birth mother for the first time, we engage her in a discussion regarding the type of family she is looking for. Some birth mothers have very specific preferences, others may have more general requests. Lifetime presents the birthmother with the profile of each family that matches her preferences. Some birth mothers receive three profiles, while others may get 30 or more.

We do our best to honor birth mother requests when presenting families. We’ve found that they will often be more comfortable and confident in regards to their adoption plan when they have found just the family they are seeking.

Often a birth mother will request for us to send her a larger variety of families to select from. At that point, we would ask her to reassess her preferences, so that we can be sure to send her only those profiles of families that she is open to.

We are signed up with an agency in our state, but have had no luck. We would like to get as much exposure and help as possible. Will you work with a family that is signed up with another organization?

Yes. We work with a number of agencies and attorneys on a regular basis. Their families contract with Lifetime, utilizing all our services. Then, Lifetime works side by side with other adoption professionals on your behalf. You may use your current home study, and your agency or attorney can complete the adoption paperwork.

Families who have been waiting a long time to adopt have found Lifetime to simply offer them more exposure to potential birth mothers due to the number of pregnant women we work with at any given time. Unlike most agencies and attorneys, we have the ability to work nationwide with birth parents.

To see a list of the current birth parent situations we are currently working with, please click here.

We are working with another adoption professional, but have not had any luck. Can you help us?

Many families share how they call their agency and get a machine or their attorney is in court for a week. We can work with these same attorneys and agencies to locate children for their clients and be there when they can’t.

We work with a number of agencies that just don’t have the staff or time to work with the number of birth parents we do, so they send us their clients to contract with us to find a child and they finish up the legal paperwork for the adoption. We also work with attorneys that prefer to handle only the legal work and not the facilitation and match process of an adoption.

We work with these professionals on your behalf, providing records, medical reports, counseling, support, and information to help complete your adoption.

At Lifetime, we don’t want families paying additional fees; many agencies will reduce their fees when Lifetime is locating a child for you. For example, in some eastern states, such as Massachusetts , a family must complete their adoption through an agency. Many agencies will reduce their fees greatly when you are working with Lifetime, sometimes up to thousands of dollars, as they are only doing the home study and post-placement visits. Lifetime is locating and working with the prospective birth parents, which saves them time and resources. We will offer suggestions to help you save money when working with us.

We work with these professionals and continue to be one of the largest domestic adoption organizations in the nation because we are focused on our clients and not trying to be "everything to everyone". We have found many of our birth parents first ask when they call if we are an agency, when told we are not they often respond, “Great! I don’t want to work with an agency.” We have also found that birth parents are often afraid of, or are intimidated by, contacting attorneys for adoption help and pregnancy support.

There are many variables in the waiting period. Among the most important is the emotional readiness of the adoptive family. Families need to be aware that on occasion, adoption can happen very quickly. They need to ask themselves if they are indeed emotionally ready to welcome their child home right now.

In most Lifetime adoptions, the birth parents select the adoptive family from an adoption profile containing photos. This is a critical step in the adoption process. Families should be ready to receive our recommendations and make changes to their profiles and photos.

Families that are more receptive to adopting a child regardless of race will be quickest to match. They will be presented to more situations and have more opportunities to be chosen.

Being open to birth mother contact is another variable that can help a family match more quickly. More and more birthmothers are seeking families that are open to letters and photos, or even an annual visit in the form of a picnic or day at the beach with their child and the adoptive family. Adoptive parents should openly and honestly discuss what they are willing to commit to for future birth mother contact.

In some cases, birth mothers will report usage of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, or narcotics prior to learning about the pregnancy. Thankfully, most women will stop using any of these substances once the pregnancy is a certainty. A few may continue substance usage throughout a pregnancy. Adoptive families should learn about the effects and risks of various substances and decide what they are open to considering.

Finally, simply follow the steps that we request of you as a Lifetime Family. There is not anything difficult, but families need to follow the program if they want to adopt safely and successfully. At times, families have started our program but failed to submit profiles, start their home study, or return our calls when presenting birth mother situations to them. Our program is safe and successful, and has been working since 1986. We are proudly building families, but families need to also do their part as well.

The home study is a written report required by each state for every type of adoption. Its purpose is to satisfy the courts that an infant or child is being placed into a suitable and safe home environment.

The home study is conducted by a trained social worker over two or three meetings, and at least one meeting must take place in the home. Home studies can be conducted by your state adoption division or by a private social worker or agency licensed in your state.

A typical home study may require information that is very personal, regarding your employment, finances, health and medical history, insurance coverage, and any criminal background. A successful home study typically requires references and the social worker's recommendation.

Each home study must meet the general requirements as prescribed by your state's adoption laws. The time it takes to complete a home study may vary from state to state and between the organizations conducting the study. On average, the home study process takes three to six months to complete, and in most states completion is required prior to child placement in the adoptive home.

No, families do not need a completed home study before contracting with Lifetime. We can refer pre-approved families to social workers and private agencies in their home state to work with them on this important component of their adoption.

Most families work on their home study while Lifetime is searching for the right child for them. The home study should be for private adoption and updated when needed. In most states, an annual update is required.

Many families find it beneficial to begin both the home study and the Lifetime process at the same time. Because both may require similar information, it may save both time and money.

Should you be matched prior to having your home study completed, most providers will work with you to get it finished quickly, provided you have already begun the process.

We work with reliable attorneys in most states and we can recommend them to our contracted families. Because we work nationwide, we have built a network of attorneys who are familiar with our program and our staff. Many of them also make themselves available free of charge to help birth parents with legal matters prior to a match.

We are very proud of our associations with these attorneys and are pleased to have a solid network of legal referrals. We recommend that all families pursuing adoption use a qualified adoption attorney to complete the legal aspect of the adoption.

For more information, visit American Adoption Law to search for a qualified adoption attorney.

Does Lifetime have references of families that have successfully completed an adoption?

Once you have been pre-approved into our program, we will provide you with a list of families that have adopted through Lifetime in the past. If you would like to read a testimonial now, click here.

What About Lifetime's Fee and Financing Adoption Costs?

Adoption costs vary. There are many factors that affect the total cost of every adoption.

Our facilitation fee is paid by adoptive parents for a two-year contract. In special circumstances, there are adoption grants for families to help defray the cost of adoption in order to find loving homes for children. Click here to request information about adoption grants that may be available to you.

Adoptive parents will need to budget for attorney and home study fees. If the child is in another state, you will need to plan for travel expenses. Another expense is photo and printing costs for your family profiles. In addition, some states allow adoptive parents to pay pregnancy related expenses for the birth mother, if they wish. Adoptive parents let us know their budget in advance and we work toward keeping this in mind when a birth parent has expenses. Please note, however, that some state laws prohibit adoptive parents from paying birth mother expenses. You'll need to check with your attorney to see what, if any, birthmother expenses you would be allowed to pay.

Our adoptions tend to be more affordable than other professionals, with greater success, less failed adoptions, and more services for your money. Our fee is a one-time flat fee, allowing you set up a budget and plan for what you intend to spend.

Our fees are due in full at the same time that a family returns the signed contract to begin working with Lifetime.

The services we offer are unique, more extensive, and safer than other domestic adoption programs. Fees are for an important adoption service, and not for buying a child. Lifetime does not receive funds from any state or federal program. Normally you can stagger the legal and home study fees over the length of your adoption, depending on the adoption professional. Some professionals we will refer you to offer reduced fees especially for Lifetime families.

To learn more about adoption financing, please visit our financial resources page.

We have referrals to organizations offering adoption loans, grants, scholarships and other programs to help families with expenses. These programs are limited at times during the year and have some restrictions.

Families interested in African American or special needs adoptions can receive a grant through a separate program developed by Lifetime. To learn more about this program, visit African American Adoptions Online.

You may also read more about tax credits and other financial benefits available to you as an adoptive parent.

Who Can Adopt Through Lifetime?

Almost any married couple who can provide a healthy, stable family life can adopt.

We will review your application as a whole, and if we have any questions, we will call you to discuss your needs and be sure we can help you. We have had a high success rate because of this screening process.

We limit the amount of families we work with each month, allowing each family personal attention as we work with them toward an adoption. Lifetime Adoption Center has fewer restrictions than many adoption agencies, allowing families more choice and more control in their adoption.

Several single women have successfully adopted though Lifetime.

We work with only a limited number of single parents at one time, because often it can take longer for them to be selected by a birthmother.

We advise all adoptive parents, especially singles looking to adopt to read AdoptingOnline.com to help educate them about adoption, as well as different paths to achieve a safe and successful adoption

Do I need to be an American citizen or live in the United States to adopt through Lifetime Adoption ?

We have been able to work with adoptive parents living in other countries, as long as they are legal U.S. citizens and have completed a home study. Also, we can work with foreigners who are living in the U.S. and have a home study.

Your first step would be to fill out an application. We would be happy to give you a referral to an overseas social worker for your home study once this is done. We work with only a small number of international families at one time, and each family is approved on a case by case basis.

We have had great success with military families stationed abroad. We appreciate the service these families make for our country and are proud to be able to assist them as we are able.

If you have questions about whether we can work with you, the first step is to fill out our application. We will let you know, based on our experience, if there may be concerns.

Adoptive parents must be at least twenty-one years old. We have had adoptive parents in their late 50’s.

Most of our birth parents are looking for loving families that are healthy, active, and who can provide a loving and supportive environment in which their child will thrive. We review applications thoroughly and will give you an honest assessment if we feel that age may be a concern in being selected by a birth parent.

We only offer a contract to families we feel confident we can help. At times we will limit the number of families over 40, allowing each family that we are already working with a chance to adopt sooner rather than later.

Yes. We have found that birth parents prefer families with less than three children, either biological or adopted, and these are the families that do best in our program. The choice of the adoptive family is made by the birth parents in the majority of our adoptions.

We strongly encourage all families, especially those with many or young children, to pay very close attention to their coordinators suggestions in regards to their profiles. We have worked very closely with birthmothers since 1986, especially in finding out from them what they want to see in profiles of families. This is one of the reasons that our families are more successful than those who go through other adoption professionals. Be open to changes in your profile, especially as they relate to the children in your family.

Yes. The majority of our families live out of state. We offer services nationwide and for some families in Canada, on a case-by-case basis. We have also assisted families in other countries adopt from the United States.

Since we have birth parents from all over the United States , it is vital to have a wide selection of families for our birth parents. At times, we may have requests from birthparents for families who live near, or far, perhaps close to the beach or high in the mountains, or even with interests that are somewhat geographical in nature. We are proud to have the ability to fulfill most every request with a number of families from which each birth mother can choose.

No. It isn’t necessary, but it is helpful.

We provide all the technical work for you to be presented on our website. This is an optional benefit, but one that is becoming more important as more of our birthmothers are finding us, as well as a family they are interested in, from our website.

We are also increasing our use of email in communications with our contracted families. For that reason, it is important to at least have an email address on file, even if it is a Yahoo or Hotmail account that you can check from work, the library, or a friend’s home.

We’ve found that there are some birthmothers who wish to correspond via email with an adoptive family. Please be aware that without this capability, it may hinder your ability to communicate with birthmothers who desire this method for getting to know you.

About the Babies, Children, and Birthparents

Usually 24 hours to three days old.

In most cases, the baby will be discharged directly from the hospital to the adoptive family. A very few states require temporary cradle care before placing the baby with the adoptive family. Once you have been mutually matched with a birth mother, it is easy to learn about the requirements in her state. Our staff can advise you with details and referrals to attorneys as needed.

Parenthood is one of the most joyous experiences in life and we feel it is important, if at all possible, to experience your child’s life from the very beginning. This is one of the advantages of a Lifetime adoption when compared with international adoptions. We do everything we can to be sure that you are designated as the parents of your child even prior to the birth.

We have new prospective birth parents calling our center every day. We are working with both expectant parents as well as those with children who are already born. Visit our page, Birthparents Currently Seeking Families, where we have posted many of our current birth mothers. Contracted families with profiles have been presented to these birthmothers before they are posted.

Our birthmother listing page is available to give you an idea of the different things birthmothers are seeking in families, as well as to show that Lifetime is working with new birthmother situations all the time. Bookmark this page as it is usually updated throughout the week.

Only contracted Lifetime families whose criteria match with the birthmothers' are presented for these situations. Due to confidentiality, we do not disclose information regarding our birthmothers to non-contracted families or families who do not match what the birthmothers are seeking.

On occasion we will accept families requesting a particular gender. However, we have found that birth mothers respond disapprovingly to gender preferences, and often comment, “If the family was blessed with a biological child they would not be given the choice of gender.”

None of us want women to feel rejected because the child she is carrying is of the "wrong gender". Many of our birth mothers don't know what gender the baby will be and even sonograms are not 100 percent accurate. We encourage families interested in a specific gender to consider the adoption of a waiting child where the gender is obviously known. If you really would prefer a specific gender, please fill out our free application and share with us why you are selecting a specific gender.

It is important for all families to understand that with more specifics required for your child, you may experience a much longer wait to be chosen by a birth parent.

Yes! We happily see our families blessed with twins a number of times each year.

In the event of multiple births, Lifetime Adoption fees are the same as a single birth. We don't charge an additional fee for twins. Our families are paying for our services, not for a child or children.

Most of our situations are newborns, although we do on occasion have toddlers, sibling groups, and older children.

Our birthmothers represent a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, including Caucasian, Hispanic, Native American, African American, East Indian, and Asian backgrounds, as well as mixed and other heritages.

At Lifetime, for our purposes, we consider the definition of biracial to be someone of at least part African American decent. Mixed race children may have two or more racial backgrounds, which may also include African-American heritage.

I view your website a lot and have noticed you have about 80 adoptive families waiting. How does that tie into the number of birth parents waiting to place their child? Does it mean that the birth mothers on your site didn't pick the adoptive families you show?

The birth mother situations that you see posted are women who’ve contacted us and are interested in placing their child for adoption. They are all in various stages of the process, for example:

In some cases we are unable to match the birth mother with a family, for various reasons. We have 10 or more new families each month that we work with. Not all of our families are posted on the website. It is important that we have a good selection of families for birth parents to view and select from as they come to our site.

Some families end up waiting because they have specific preferences and the birth mothers on the website don't match their preferences. Some families that come to us are matched almost immediately. This is usually the case for African American and bi-racial couples, because we have African American and bi-racial children available and we don't have families that are open to children of these races. So when a new family comes along, they are matched quickly. If you’re interested in working with Lifetime, I would encourage you to apply. It is free and this allows us to take the next step with you.

Where do your birth parents and children come from?

Our prospective birth parents and children come from all over the US . We receive referrals from our previous birth mothers and medical professionals we have developed a long term relationship with over the years. We advertise in most states and many birth families locate adoptive parents from our sites on the Internet. Several of our referrals come from personal recommendations, hospitals, counselors, physicians, newspaper articles, TV appearances, radio programs, yellow pages, nationwide out reach programs, and counselors.

Our unique birth mother magazine “ Lifetime Adoption Magazine” is a very popular means to reach birth families also.

I noticed you have older children seeking homes. Where are these children living now?

Most of the children that you see on our site are living with their birth parents or relatives. The birth parents have tried to raise the children and for different reasons, from health issues, aging grandparents, personal problems or divorce are seeking a better life for them.

Adoption is the option many of these parents request, often wanting to avoid the children going into the foster care system. Only a few of the children are in foster care at the time we are contacted. Nearly all children are being placed with adoptive families by the birth parent have not had their rights terminated by the court. They come to us to find adoptive parents, allowing them the ability to decide the type of environment and family their child will be raised in. This is often the last loving choice they can make for their child.

Yes. We have women and men considering adoption that would prefer a family not in their state. They may not want contact or may only want limited contact after placement. Some birth parents are interested in only a family with similar interests and have not found that in the area they live in. For example, a birth mother searching for a family of the same faith with less than one child and pets may find the exact match two states away. The Internet and our sites are perfect for finding the right match for their child.

What about the baby’s health?

Lifetime Adoption requests a medical release and health information from each birth mother. We will provide you with all the documentation we receive regarding the health of the child you are considering adopting. In addition, many hospitals will routinely do a toxicology screen on all newborns. Most of our babies are healthy and have been cared for in utero by loving birth mothers.

What happens in the event the baby is born and there are medical problems we feel we can’t handle?

It is very rare in this age of medical technology that we are unaware of medical issues prior to birth, but it can happen. We have families waiting who have requested special needs children that are prepared for the long-term needs of a child with disabilities. It is Lifetime’s policy to find homes for all our children and prevent them from going into the foster care system. In the event a child has drug exposure, we have families waiting and willing to adopt.

We never force a family to take a child home if they feel that a child is not meant for them. Birth parents appreciate the fact we have families for their children. In regards to your adoption plan, you would continue to be presented to birth mothers and be matched with a birth mother as soon as possible. There are no additional fees paid by the family.

We have an unbelievably low reclaim rate, 3-4%. We offer counseling to birth families to help prevent any heartaches and disappointments. If a birth parent should change their mind, the adoptive family is put on top priority and is put back in our active group as soon as they want to start again. Unlike other services, you will not have to pay any additional fees again. Our goal is to build your family through adoption. We are dedicated to your success.

And please remember, if you didn't find the answers to your questions, send a note to us via our Questions and Feedback form and we'll answer your questions as soon as possible!