Adoption &
Foster Care
Support, guidance, and trusted resources for every stage of the adoption and foster care journey
From preparing to welcome a child to building lifelong family connections — warm, evidence-informed guidance grounded in one principle recognised worldwide: every decision should serve the best interests of the child.
The Beginning
What Adoption Is
Adoption is the legal and emotional process of becoming a child's permanent parent. It creates a lifelong parent–child relationship, with all the love, rights and responsibilities that come with it. Families choose adoption for many reasons — a longing to parent, wanting to grow their family, a connection to a specific child, or a wish to offer a safe, permanent home.
Adoption is not a second-best way to build a family. It is simply one of the beautiful ways families are made.
The Child Comes First
Family Is Built on Love
Every Story Is Unique
The Different Types of Adoption
There is no single path to adoption. Understanding the options helps you find the route that fits your family — and, above all, the needs of a child.
Domestic Adoption
Adopting a child from within your own country, usually through a licensed agency or your national child welfare system.
International Adoption
Adopting a child from another country, guided by the safeguards of the 1993 Hague Adoption Convention where both countries are parties.
Open Adoption
An arrangement with some form of ongoing contact or information-sharing between the adoptive family and the child's birth family.
Closed Adoption
An arrangement with no identifying contact between birth and adoptive families. Practice varies widely between countries.
Relative (Kinship) Adoption
Adoption by a grandparent, aunt, uncle or other relative — often prioritised because it preserves existing family bonds.
Stepparent Adoption
A stepparent becoming a legal parent to their partner's child, formalising a parenting role that already exists.
Foster-to-Adopt
Fostering a child whose plan may become adoption if returning to their birth family is not possible.
Adoption After Infertility
Many families arrive at adoption after fertility challenges. Taking time to grieve first helps you welcome a child wholeheartedly.
Single-Parent Adoption
Many countries welcome single applicants. One committed, consistent parent can offer everything a child needs to thrive.
Same-Sex Family Adoption
Where legally recognised, same-sex couples adopt through the same assessment process — research consistently shows children flourish in loving families of every shape.
Preparing to Become a Parent
Preparation is about far more than paperwork. It's about readying your home, your finances, and — most importantly — your heart.
Your Home & Finances
- Create a safe, welcoming space — a place that can become truly theirs
- Plan realistically for assessment, travel and settling-in costs, which vary by country and route
- Ask your adoption authority about any financial support, leave entitlements or subsidies available where you live
Your Mental Wellbeing
- Give yourself space to process the journey that brought you here, including infertility grief if it is part of your story
- Learn about attachment and trauma-informed parenting before your child arrives
- Build your village early — support groups, adoption-competent professionals and understanding friends
- Prepare extended family to welcome your child with warmth and respect for their story
The Home Study Is a Support, Not a Test
Most countries include a home study or suitability assessment. It isn't a search for perfect parents — it's a process that helps prepare you and match children with families who can meet their needs.
The Legal Journey
Legal Considerations
Adoption law exists to protect children. Every country sets its own eligibility rules, assessments, timelines and court procedures — there is no universal process. What is shared internationally is the principle that adoption must serve the child's best interests and never involve improper gain.
Because Laws Vary by Country
- Always start with your country's official adoption authority
- Use only licensed, accredited agencies and professionals
- For intercountry adoption, ask whether both countries apply the Hague Convention safeguards
- Be cautious of anyone promising a fast or guaranteed adoption
Country-Specific Processes
Our Country-by-Country Adoption Guide is built to grow with verified, official information for each country — eligibility, documents, authorities, timelines and official resources.
- National adoption authorities and how to find yours
- The 1993 Hague Adoption Convention, explained simply
- What a home study typically involves
Remember
We never publish unverified legal information. Where details are still being researched, we say so clearly and point you to your official national authority.
The Emotional Journey
Helping Your Child Feel Safe
Every adopted or fostered child has experienced separation from their first family. Feeling truly safe — what specialists call "felt safety" — comes before everything else. Trust and attachment grow from thousands of small, repeated moments of being seen, soothed and kept safe.
Building Trust & Attachment
- • Keep routines calm, consistent and predictable
- • Respond warmly to needs — you cannot spoil a child with comfort
- • Let parents provide most of the early caregiving
- • Expect progress and setbacks; connection is built over time
Identity
Adopted children grow up weaving together two stories. Talking openly about adoption from the start, keeping cultural connections alive and honouring birth families helps children build a strong, whole sense of who they are.
School
Family-tree projects and "baby photo" days can be tender territory. A quiet conversation with teachers about respectful language goes a long way.
Extended Family
Grandparents, aunts and uncles shape a child's sense of belonging. Help them use positive adoption language and treat your child's story as theirs to share — or not.
Parenting With Understanding
Trauma-Informed Parenting
Children who have experienced loss, neglect or instability may express big feelings through behaviour. Trauma-informed parenting asks "what happened to you?" instead of "what's wrong with you?" — meeting behaviour with curiosity, connection and calm rather than punishment.
Connection before correction: a child who feels safe with you can learn, grow and heal.
Co-Regulation First
You Don't Have to Do This Alone
Foster Care
Foster carers offer children a safe, nurturing home during a season of uncertainty. It is demanding, deeply human work — and one of the most direct ways to change a child's life.
A Safe Harbour
Fostering provides stability and care while decisions are made about a child's future — often with reunification with their birth family as the first goal.
Working as a Team
Foster carers work alongside social workers, birth families and courts, always guided by what is best for the child.
Many Ways to Help
Emergency, short-term, long-term, respite and kinship care — different families help in different ways, and all of them matter.
Common Myths & Misconceptions
Adoption carries decades of outdated assumptions. Let's replace them with what the evidence — and adoptive families themselves — actually tell us.
Myth
"Adopted children can never bond as deeply as biological children."
The Reality
Attachment is built through consistent, responsive care — not genetics. Deep, secure bonds form in adoptive families every day.
Myth
"Adoption erases a child's past."
The Reality
A child's story begins before adoption. Honouring their history, culture and birth family supports a healthy identity.
Myth
"Only wealthy married couples can adopt."
The Reality
Eligibility varies by country, but many welcome single people, renters and families of modest means. Stability and capacity to care matter most.
Myth
"Foster carers can't love a child they might have to say goodbye to."
The Reality
Loving a child through uncertainty is the heart of fostering — and that love benefits the child no matter what comes next.
Support Groups & Professional Help
No one should walk this journey alone. Trusted information and real community make all the difference — before, during and long after an adoption.
Finding Your People
- Adoptive and foster parent support groups — local and online
- Adoptee-led communities, whose voices matter deeply
- Post-adoption support services offered in many countries
- Adoption-competent therapists and counsellors
Trusted Organisations
- Your country's official adoption authority — always your first stop
- UNICEF — global child welfare and children's rights
- The Hague Conference (HCCH) — intercountry adoption safeguards
- Licensed, accredited adoption agencies in your country
Key Takeaways
The most important things to remember on your journey.
Love Builds Family
The Child Comes First
Seek Support Early
Disclaimer: The information provided on this page is for educational purposes only and is not legal, medical or psychological advice. Adoption and foster care laws and procedures differ significantly between countries and regions. Always consult your country's official adoption authority, a licensed agency or a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.