Special Challenges of Kinship Adoption

Adopting a relative can its own special considerations. What are these challenges, and do you overcome them? Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility & adoption education and support nonprofit, interviews Robin Sizemore, Exec. Director of Hopscotch Adoptions, an international adoption agency with an active kinship adoption program; Lorrin Pekarske an adoption social worker for the Catholic Charities supporting all types of adoptive families, including relative adoptions; and Tim Eirich, an adoption attorney with Grob & Eirich, LLC, specializes in adoption, child welfare cases, and assisted reproduction, and a member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.

Listen

Hit the Highlights

Domestic Kinship Adoption
- Without Social Services involvement. With social services/foster care involvement.
- Advantages and disadvantages of getting social services involved.
- Is it possible to get an adoption subsidy from foster care for adopting a child through kinship adoption with special needs?
- Differences between permanent guardianship/custody and adoption?
- Should you legally adopt your grandchild or niece or nephew, or have guardianship?
International Kinship Adoption
- Changes in how international kinship adoptions are processed.
- Universal Accreditation Act
- Independent relinquishment of your relative vs. child being in state care.
- Can you adopt your relative’s child if he is living in a safe place, such as with a grandmother?
- Does it matter how close the relative is: niece vs. cousin?
- Is it possible to live in the country for 2 years to avoid?
- Do you need to use an adoption agency in the US or can you do an independent adoption?
- How to find an adoption agency in the US that does kinship adoptions.
- How much does it cost to do a kinship adoption from another country?
Special Issues with Kinship Adoption
- We think in terms of best interest of the child and we usually assume best interest is for the child to be placed with relatives. Is it?
- Family involvement & creating boundaries
- Navigating openness in relative / kinship adoptions
- Lack of preparation or perceived need for education.
- People stepping up to adopt a relative’s child were not actively pursuing adoption before and may not be prepared for raising a child who has experienced trauma.