Selecting adoptive parents for your child is an empowering experience for some birth parents. That’s because when you choose the hopeful adoptive couple, you influence the kind of future your child will enjoy.

As a birth parent who is thinking about adoption, you should know that you’re always in control of every detail of your adoption experience. You have the power to give your child with the life they deserve. Using online adoption profiles posted by adoptive families, you can choose:

• The kind of family that will raise your child
• The culture in which your child will be raised
• The religious tradition in which your child will develop
• The location where your child will grow up

Your adoption professional and a catalog of online adoptive parent profiles will help you search for adoptive parents in Maine and across the U.S. Online profiles allow you to find adoptive families with your desired traits. Selecting the perfect family waiting to adopt will provide you peace since you know your child will have the life you want for them.

When looking for prospective adoptive families in Maine, it’s important to find a licensed adoption agency to provide the resources and support you’ll need in your search for the right prospective adoptive family. To find a professional you can talk with about finding adoptive parents in Maine, visit here.

Throughout this guide, you’ll find out about finding the perfect family waiting to adopt, so read on.

Beginning Your Search for the Right Prospective Adoptive Family

At the beginning of your search for families looking to adopt a baby in Maine, it helps to ask yourself questions about the traits and factors that you think are important to your adoption journey. Only you know what’s best for you. Your answers to these questions will help you define the search for the perfect prospective adoptive family.

Many different types of people are looking to adopt a child. That can work to your favor. That diversity means you’re more likely to find hopeful parents that perfectly match your selected traits. Before you can find the perfect family, however, you need to decide what prospective adoptive family characteristics are important to you. 

Here are a few questions that can help you know what to look for when beginning your search for an adoptive family:

• Where will your baby be raised? If you want your baby to be raised in Maine, you should only look for families waiting to adopt within the state. However, there are national adoption agencies that will help you place your baby with couples looking to adopt in Maine and beyond. Expanding your search beyond your state will improve your chances of finding the perfect match.
• What family structure would you prefer for your baby? You may prefer that your baby is placed with people who want to adopt who already have children. You can also choose from among waiting families who have no children at all.
• Are values and beliefs important to me? You may want to place your baby with families that share your religious or philosophical beliefs. Or, you may not be concerned with theological beliefs as long as the prospective adoptive family is of strong character.
• Do you want your baby to look like their parents? Some birth parents want to place their babies with adoptive families that share the child’s ethnicity or race. You get to decide what’s right for you and your baby.
• What lifestyle do you want your baby to enjoy? If you want your child to have opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors, for example, you’ll want to look for families that enjoy camping, hiking, fishing, and hunting. If sports are important to you, you may want to search for couples looking to adopt that share an affinity for athletic pursuits.
• What kind of adoption do you want? While many prospective adoptive families these days welcome open adoptions, that may not be the case with everyone. If you’d like to have contact with your child or the adoptive parents in the future, it’s a good idea to make sure the prospective adoptive family that you consider welcomes open adoption.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll better know where you want to set the boundaries of your search for parents who want to adopt a baby in Maine.

How to Find Adoptive Parents in Maine

The good news is that finding a great adoptive family is easier now than ever before. There are now many more resources available to help you in your search for families wanting to adopt in Maine and beyond. Your search for people looking to adopt a baby may include online adoption profiles, newspaper or online advertising, your personal network of acquaintances, and your adoption professional.

Of all the different ways to find adoptive parents for your baby, possibly the most effective is to work with a great adoption agency in Maine to find a prospective adoptive family.

Your chosen adoption agency has many important benefits to offer you when you’re seeking an adoptive home for your child. Your agency can offer valuable resources such as:

• Support and counseling
• Help getting needed services such as housing, prenatal care, and maternity clothing
• Guidance in identifying what you want in an adoptive family

A lot of birth parents report that the most important service an adoption agency can provide is helping to find a family to adopt your baby. When your agency participates in your search for families that want to adopt in Maine, you’ll benefit from improved reach and a more diverse pool of adoptive family candidates.

How You Can Find an Adoptive Family in Maine [Or Beyond]

Maybe placing your baby with a family locally isn’t that important to you. If that’s the case, working with a national agency may be beneficial. National adoption agencies give you broader reach and more diverse candidates.

National agencies work with many families at the same time, which may not be the case with local agencies. Selecting a national instead of a local agency can mean having hundreds of adoption profiles to review instead of just having a few local families to choose from.

Working with a local adoption agency can be a good experience. But given the lower number of prospective families you may have to choose from, you may end up compromising on some traits that are important to you. Choosing a national agency can fix that. You’ll have more families to choose from and you’ll be more likely to find a match without giving up any of your wishes.

Most adoption agencies in Maine have a current listing of adoption profiles online. These profiles share important details about active prospective adoptive families. These profiles will help you find a potential match more efficiently. A good adoption profile includes details such as:

• An introduction to the family and its members
• A description of the home, including the neighborhood, community and city
• Details about the extended family
• Photographs and videos that represent the family’s lifestyle

To see what kinds of information you can learn from a prospective adoptive parent profile, view a few active adoption profile samples here.

Learning More About Prospective Adoptive Families

Through your search, you think you may have found the right prospective adoptive family in Maine. What now?

Most online adoption profiles do a good job of describing adoptive families. That said, you can’t learn everything about a family from a profile. To really feel comfortable knowing the family is right for your baby, you need to get to know the family better in person.

First, you’ll start by communicating with the family through email or phone conversations. Some birth parents are comfortable communicating with prospective adoptive family via video or in person.

Through this contact, you’ll learn important info about the adoptive family and the life your child will live in their care through this pre-placement contact. That can include:

• Does the family match all of your pre-selected criteria?
• Is the family respectful of your wishes and your rights as a birth parent?
• Was the family excited about the prospect of adopting your child?
• Were they enthusiastic about getting to know you better?
• Does your maternal instinct tell you that this is the family for your child?

If after you meet the family you honestly answer these questions with a yes, congratulations! You may have found the family you want to raise your child.

Any family looking to adopt a baby in Maine can create an endearing profile, but many birth mothers say they just know when they meet the right family. When you interact with the perfect family, you’ll be comfortable that you’re making the best choice for your child.

What Are the Next Steps for Finding an Adoptive Family?

Finding the perfect prospective adoptive parents in Maine is a momentous part of a birth mother’s adoption experience. When you find the perfect adoptive couple, it means you’ve found a family that will offer your child a bright future and a chance to become the person they’re meant to be.

No matter what type of adoption you’ve selected, there are many available tools that can help you find the perfect family for your child. To learn more about finding a prospective adoptive family for your baby, visit this link and start the process today.