From the safety and love to a child without parents is very satisfying not only for children but for adults as well. If adoption is something that we take it that you need to fully understand all the legal and emotional effects. Adopting a child can be a complex and time-consuming process, but the benefits for both of you is priceless.

Acceptance is the legal process in which a child is welcomed as a new member of the family. During the adoption, the process is complete, the adoptive parents are entitled to equal rights and responsibilities of parents. New parents are given the right, the right to custody of the child and fully responsible for the adopted child of the welfare, well-being physical and emotional.

Adoption of a child is legally recognized worldwide. Many countries allow the adoption of law as a means for maintenance and security for children abandoned or orphaned. This universal goal, the face of adoption in recent decades. In years’ past, the baby was, first, that for the adoption, but today the concept of the adoption of a child has also flourished children of all ages. There are several reasons to ensure that all children are now being accepted without any further, whatever the age.

The most obvious result of the adoption is the mere fact that a man, every child has the right to security, health, safety and good luck. Children should be able to plant roots and to feel loved and accepted as members of the family. Everybody needs the feeling that this is a family expects of us, want their life and care for us. Children feel this need and we have very fundamental right.

The base of each child itself is worth to love and be loved. Without these sentiments, a child is not in a position to determine their place in society and their relevance to the other. They are not in a position, the problems of integration into their communities. Without parental valuation attention and the sight of children and the social behaviour of fighting.

Many couples want a family not being able to conceive children. These attentive parents are of the opinion that the adoption of a child is to fill the gap and enable them to take their families. Even if they are not able to biological parents, couples know that children enrich their lives, and they know they can offer much to a child in distress.

Sometimes adoptive parents have children may already be, biological and want to enrich their families through adoption of a child. Nearly thirty percent of adoptive parents are in fact the consequences of their own biological children. The number of love and caring single adoptive parents are also developing.

Without parents, children can from a number of reasons. In many countries, war, disease and hunger are creating tragic situations, the countless orphans. Others are in favor of the adoption by their parents, who know they simply unable to determine the degree of caution that the child needs and deserves. Some see it as a cowardly and selfish action, but may be parents who send their children to adoption are coming and going over the decision. Despite the reason why children should be the only ones to benefit from the love of nature, attentive parents.

Young people are often the parents that they did not recognize the need to support, and to decide whether their children up for adoption. Financial difficulties often play a role in that decision. Single parents like to believe that it can not support the child, training or any other way to help the child in the form of an official of the individual situation.

While the price for the adoption of the law have reached an all-time-high in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and North America, there are still many more children are waiting, and we hope, for the adoptive parents, who are willing to open their hearts to De maintenance and security policy is in urgent need.

If you are looking for more information on adoption services, adoption agency or any other issue on adoption please visit this links.



Thanks to ebet sanders for contributing this article to our Adoption blog:

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Can you answer PhilM’s question about Adoption?:

After all, if the idea behind closed adoption is that the adoptive parent wants the child to be hers and hers alone, isn’t that suggestive of possessiveness and ownership?
“Did it ever occur to you that the adoptive parents want to feel like it is their child”?

Yes. It did. That’s why it seems like it promotes the idea of children as property.

And, in case you were curious, I have a LOT to do with adoption.

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The first step towards an adoption procedure requires prospective parents to file a petition with the court for a formal request to adopt a child; the couple need to give details of personal and professional nature including the child’s birth certificate (or birth particulars e.g. date and place of birth), a legal statement as to why the child’s birth parents have terminated their rights among other facts. All this requires the expertise of an adoption lawyer to represent the prospective parents in court, minimize hassles of petition filing etc and to follow a procedure that is most beneficial to their rights.

Especially in the final stages of the adoption procedure, the help of a qualified and experienced adoption lawyer is of utmost importance since this is the individual who will clue in the adoptive parents about how to approach the hearing, which takes place a year from the child being sent to stay with them in their home. While adoption agencies can educate parents about the nitty-gritties of adoption issues, it is mainly the onus of a true adoption lawyer to masterfully handle the legalities of the procedure and ensure the couple in question are granted permanent custody of the child through proper and timely follow-through of various legal procedures and ascertaining all documents are in order.

Adoption lawyers are professionals that play a vital role in ensuring International adoptions follow through smoothly as well since an adoptive child from a foreign country has different liabilities attached to the country’s rules and regulations, which can at times, prove to be restrictions that regular parents without the knowledge of legal issues are helpless to deal with or find a solution to. Sometimes, these obstacles include language barriers, which may prevent them from comprehending vital legal issues stated in the adoption documents and a good adoption lawyer with the help of a capable translator can help overcome this challenge of foreign adoption.

In the case of a domestic adoption and more so for international adoption, the role of a good adoption lawyer cannot be emphasized more than the fact that this is the professional who has the ability and experience to understand and document citizenship details, health restrictions, explain and guide clients who are prospective parents on issues of a criminal background check as well as abou their parental rights regarding various types of adoption and related formalities.

Registration, legal rights of the child as well as those of the adoptive parents, termination of the rights of the birth parents, as well as the full scope of the adoption procedure are some of the vital issues adoption lawyers deal with on behalf of the prospective parents besides cluing them in about legal loop-holes and gray areas to avoid in adoption procedures.

Some agencies and NGO’s involved solely in the matters of adoption hire their own adoption lawyers to smoothen out the process for their in-house requirements and to minimize hassles associated with adoption to encourage more people to take up this cause for building a family unit; thus, even as their fees may be a bit on the higher side, hiring adoption lawyers is a sure-shot way of staying on top of legal issues.



Thanks to Abhishek Agarwal for contributing this article to our Adoption blog:

State Adoption Laws

Barb and Maxine work for a large corporation whose profit for the last quarter was $400 million. Both women are new moms, currently at home caring for their children. Barb will be at home for 52 weeks and will receive 85% of her regular salary. Maxine, on the other hand, is able to stay home for only 35 weeks during which she receives 55% of her usual salary. What’s the difference? Barb is a biological mother; Maxine is an adoptive mother.

Both the Federal Government and the employer are treating these women differently, based on the way they have chosen to build their families. Their employer, like many organizations, “tops up” the payments received from Employment Insurance so that employees receive full (or near full) salaries while they are off work1. In Maxine’s case, however, their employer does not extend the benefit to adoptive parents.

The Federal Government pays Employment Insurance (EI) benefits to provide financial assistance to new parents (currently 55% of average insurable earnings to a maximum of $413 / week). Maternity benefits are payable to biological mothers for a maximum of 15 weeks. Parental benefits are payable to parents (biological or adoptive) for a maximum of 35 weeks. Thus biological parents are eligible for 50 weeks of employment insurance while adoptive parents hit the maximum at only 35 weeks. One adoptive parent is mounting a Charter of Rights challenge on this very issue in the E.I. Legislation.2

Biological parents are provided with EI benefits over a one- year period comprised of:

a) 2 week disqualification period (i.e. no EI payments) and

b) 15 weeks of maternity benefits; and

c) 35 weeks of parental benefits

Total: 52 weeks

Many employers also pay top-up wage compensation to their employees for the two-week E.I. disqualification period by topping up their wage to between 85% and 100% of their normal salary (i.e. the employer pays all of this benefit during the first two weeks). For the next 15 weeks, the top-up reduces by the amount of the E.I. maternity benefits (described above). Some employers also top-up the employees’ salary for the full 35 weeks of parental benefits as well3.

As a result of complaints we received about how adopting parents were treated in the workplace, Sunrise conducted a limited and informal poll of its clients to see how widespread the differential treatment of adoptive and biological parents by employers is, and we were stunned by the responses. Many of our clients reported situations in which a biological parent receives top up payments, while an adoptive parent is refused. Here are some examples of what we heard:

Government of British Columbia: The B.C. Provincial Government is one of least discriminatory employers we heard about. It offers a top-up to both biological and adoptive parents (to its unionized and non-unionized employees.) It also offers adoptive parents a ” Pre-Placement Adoptive Leave.” This leave allows adoptive parents to attend pre-placement visits for their homestudy or to complete legal requirements for the adoption while collecting 85% of their regular salary.

Government of Canada: A federal civil servant, who is an adoptive parent, received 93% of her wage by top-up for 37 weeks. The real irony is that the Federal Government treats its adoptive parent employees better than most employers do, but discriminates against all adoptive parents with its EI policy!

Police: The RCMP (a federal government employer) offers both adopting and biological parents the top-up for 37 weeks. Other police forces in British Columbia (Municipal forces) generally do not pay the top-up to adoptive parents. (The municipal public force in Saanich, B.C., however, does pay the top-up for 37 weeks).

Municipalities: One adopting parent reported that the Municipality she worked for finally gave her the top-up right after she filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.

Hospitals: Regional Health Districts are the employer for nurses in British Columbia. One adoptive parent reported that in his hospital, biological parents receive a top-up on the EI Maternity Benefit only. No one receives a top-up on the Parental Benefit. Since adoptive parents don’t qualify for maternity benefits, they don’t receive any top-up at all.

Universities: Universities do not seem to take a consistent approach in how they treat their employee parents. Adopting parents employed by universities told us about a wide variety of benefits payable to adopting parents. Often these were inconsistent, unusual, and at times discriminatory.

At the University of British Columbia, adopting parents get topped-up for 12 weeks, while biological mothers receive 20 weeks. At the University of Toronto, adopting parents receive 27 weeks of top-up, and biological mothers receive 3 weeks more. At Capilano College, parents on parental leave are topped-up to 80% of salary, and for parents on maternity leave to 90% of salary.

Professors at Simon Fraser University are the only employees we found who were treated absolutely identically whether they were biological or adoptive parents. To do this, the maternity benefits not paid to adoptive parents by EI are covered by the university. Kudos to SFU!

Schools: We heard from many teachers across the province. School Districts in British Columbia bargain separately with the teachers’ union (BCTF). As a result, adopting parents (who are also teachers) receive different benefits depending on where they work. For example, Surrey Teachers do receive the top-up of 95% of salary for the first 2 weeks, 70% for next 15 weeks and zero for the balance of parental leave. North Vancouver District teachers receive 95% for the first 2 weeks, but then 70% for only the next 10 weeks (while biological mothers receive it for the next 15 weeks). Most other school districts do not pay top-ups at all to teachers. There is no rational basis for treating teachers, who choose to create their families by adoption, differently. One parent was told that top-ups are not paid to adopting parents because the school district follows “Government of Canada rulings”. This doesn’t accord with our findings; all federal government departments that we heard from do top up adopting parents.

One adopting parent employed by the Coquitlam School Board was recently refused the top-up. When she told her employer that she was filing a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, she immediately received a top-up.

Falling Between the Cracks

Some adopting parents are in a catch-22 situation and the problem may not be resolved until a parent takes action. We heard from several British Columbia parents who reported that employers dodge responsibility by saying it is up to the union to ask for benefits through the collective bargaining process.

One city police department we heard from only offers the top-up to biological parents. A Port Moody police officer said, “I am a union member and was entitled to nothing under the collective agreement. However, we were in the middle of negotiating a new one, and I asked for a provision to be added. I was unsuccessful”.

Pursuant to Labour Relations legislation, unions are required to represent minority interests (like those of adopting parents). Failure to do so can lead to a complaint with the Labour Relations Board. Exercising that legal right against your Union, however, can be a scary prospect.

Another adoptive parent reported:

“I wasn’t sure if there are many others in the same boat as myself, and considering the extremely daunting task of applying for change in our organization (my employer is Vancouver Coastal Health), I have not bothered to try. I would have to put forth a motion to the union (membership = 40,000) and the union would then vote on whether or not to pursue this issue with the Health Authority and ultimately the Government. Another union colleague who adopted several years ago felt the same as I do now.”

Many adopting parents had similar experiences when they approached their union. They were told that nothing could be done. Studies in the USA show that less than 1% of eligible employees receive adoption employment benefits. No wonder adoptive parents can feel lost in big unions!

What Can Be Done?

In a landmark 2002 study, 94% of respondents stated that adopting parents should receive the same benefits in the workplace as biological parents4. It is clear our society feels overwhelmingly that adopting and biological parents should be treated equally.

This doesn’t seem right. Large government employers (such as hospitals, health districts, municipalities and school boards) should not justify continuing to discriminate by claiming that the unions need to ask for it. They should take responsibility and end the discriminatory treatment.

Employers should treat parents equally, whether they give birth or adopt. If an employer pays an E.I. top-up to a biological parent, then the same compensation should be paid to an adopting parent. To not do so is discrimination. 6

The need for change is apparent and many parents expressed an interest in making that change happen. Unless adopting parents object, this discrimination will not end. One possibility is to file a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal.7 The most effective solution may be for adoptive parents to lobby their MLAs and MPs for legislative change. How about a law that simply says adopting parents and biological parents must be treated the same in any workplace. (After all 94% of society already thinks this is what should happen)

Talk to your employer and/or your union officials. If your organization tops up biological parents, insist that they treat adoptive parents equally.

1 We also heard about a few employers who give their employees a lump sum payment to help with adoption expenses. These payments ranged between five and ten thousand dollars.

2 This appeal is currently making its way towards the Supreme Court of Canada. The appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal is scheduled to be heard March 29 – 30, 2007. For a review of the issues in this case see http://www.bcadoption.com/afabc.

3 The rules about E.I. Supplemental payments (Top-Ups) are set out at www.hrsdc.gc.ca

4 The Dave Thomas Foundation in the USA has established a website with materials and assistance to help employers establish adoption friendly workplaces – see www.adoptionfriendlyworkplace.org

6 One adopting couple has written an impassioned plea for parents to lobby their MP’s to help end discrimination against adopting parents. See www.bcparent.ca/articles/adoption/overcoming_discrimination.html.

7 In Ontario court the courts have not been sympathetic to adopting parents. In a case called Shafer the Ontario Court of Appeal decided that the discrimination built into the EI legislation did not contravene the Charter of Rights.

The information in this article has been obtained from a limited survey of Sunrise clients. The next step is to broaden the scope of this investigation to the BC and Canadian adoption community as a whole. If you know of someone who has had a similar experience (good or bad), please contact us. We would like to understand the full extent of this problem in British Columbia and Canada and will publish the results of the final survey.



Thanks to Douglas Chalke for contributing this article to our Adoption blog:

Families Adoption Agency

Even for noble works like providing home to the homeless children that is adoption, there is a good amount of money involved. For some families, this also becomes a major issue, as they wish to give a permanent home to the child in need, but they can’t afford the adoption fees.

Adoption fee is a heavy and unavoidable price tag on happiness. The adoption fees is determined on the following basis:

1. The adoption fee depends on the country form where you adopt the child

2. It also depends on where the child is going t move after adoption.

3. Foreign adoption often involves very high fees.

4. In several adoption programs, the fee begins with the application money.

5. This is the one-time fee that is a must to be paid while the submission of the application.

6. In almost all adoptions, home study is a must. There you are made to pay the fee for home study.

7. The fees of adoption vary among the different agencies & nations.

8. These procedural fees are always subject to change with out any notice.

9. All this procedure of application and home study also involves a major chunk of the government processing costs that is of course an all together separate expense for the adoptive family.

10. Without paying all these procedural fees, the adoptive parents cannot adopt the child.

11. Henceforth, the family also needs to pay the fees for the updated visits of home study.

12. In case the adoptive parents live at a good distance from the house of the social worker, they must also pay some extra fees on every visit of home study.

13. Depending on certain circumstances, the adoptive family has to be responsible for the basic necessities of the social worker like the hourly rate, gas & hotel.

14. Another fees payable is the post adoption fees.

15. The clients also must pay some other related fees that are listed below:

a. The fee for using the foreign programs & other agencies,

b. The fee of the court appearance of the social worker

c. Assistance with documents

d. Legal fees

e. Travel fees

f. Medical fees

16. The adoptive parents must also pay the entire legal fees, administrative fees, medical, travel, and any all other expenses that arise in the adoption process.

17. Usually these fees arise in cases of the International adoption.

18. In North America, the families are able to adopt via private & public adoption agencies for little or just zero cost.

19. Make sure that you enquire about the adoption fees with an agency and / or adoption workers prior to entering the procedure.

20. When going for International adoption, be prepared for a heavy monetary expense.

21. Usually, in cases of international adoption people face shocking & unexpected surprises in terms of the legal issues of the nation’s you are adopting from rules & regulations.

22. While the fees levied on adoption can be outrageous at times, but the individuals who are indeed desperate to have a child, money shouldn’t be an issue.

23. In order to manage the adoption fees people also opt to make second mortgages on the homes, or cash on the retirement savings and / or go for some personal loans so as to insure that they have quite sufficient funds for paying the fees for adoption.

24. In such cases one can witness a perfect example of money being as meaningless as meaningful. While with out having substantial amount of savings in the bank account, applying for adoption from foreign is pointless, money stands no comparison as regards to the happiness & joy of having a child at home.



Thanks to Abhishek Agarwal for contributing this article to our Adoption blog:

Foster Children For Adoption