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| Sunny Ridge Family Center is licensed as a child welfare agency by the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (#019976), and by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Division of Family and Children, as a child placing agency. |
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How Our Domestic Adoption Program Works
Because birth parents choose the couples they want to place their babies with, the qualifications of the prospective adoptive families studied by Sunny Ridge are also determined by the birth parents. Birth parents most often express an interest in openness, the lifestyles, religious faiths, hobbies, and leisure activities of the adoptive couple. Sunny Ridge also requires that adoptive parents: 1) be residents of Illinois or Indiana, 2) provide five references, 3) demonstrate income adequate to support a family, 4) be married at least two years, and have a secure and stable family life. Under most circumstances for a domestic adoption the adoptive couple's combined age should not be over 85. Although there is a wide variance, most of the couples that have been selected have a combined age of around 70 to 75. In a prearranged adoption, there is no age consideration imposed by the agency. This is also true of our African American program and our International Adoption program. When providing birth parents with profiles of adoptive couples, their mutual comfort level of openness is considered. While there are some birthparents who prefer a "traditional" adoption, open adoption is the most common choice. Most birth mothers want to meet the adoptive couple before and after the baby is born, and would like to receive pictures and letters after placement, and/or have ongoing meetings. Adoptive and birth parents are offered counseling to better understand their roles in open adoption, always placing the highest priority on what is best for the child. Prospective adoptive parents usually enter the adoption process after attending one or more of our free adoption orientation meetings. From the information you receive, you may wish to complete an application to the domestic program. A nonrefundable $250 application fee is due with your completed application. Upon receipt of your application, the $250 application fee, and a snapshot of you, your application will be processed and a receipt sent to you. In order to familiarize our agency with your application information, it will be regularly reviewed against the prescribed traits given by our birth parents. You will be kept in active consideration for a period of two years. Our goal is to keep about 25 families "on profile" so as to offer a selection to our birth parents while minimizing the wait of prospective adoptive parents. Each time families receive children, your application will again be considered for profile. We try to match the wishes of the birth parents with the actual circumstances of the adoptive applicants, and therefore, do not maintain a waiting list in the traditional sense. We also offer home study and birth parent services to families who use other methods of locating each other. |
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