Adoption Specialist

Adoption specialists help couples adopt children both domestically and internationally. Your role as an adoption specialist is three-fold: you’re an advocate, counselor and educator.

For instance, if an infertile couple wants to start a family but finds medical intervention too costly, they may turn to you for guidance. It’s your job to lay out their options, evaluate their suitability to raise a child, and check up on the new family once the adoption has gone through. Since the adoption process is never one-sided or cut-and-dried, you also provide counseling to the adopted child and his or her birth parents. Sometimes these sessions are one-on-one, though some adoption specialists choose to hold group counseling sessions regularly that are open to any client who chooses to attend.

It’s important to remember that adoption requirements are different in every state, so it’s your job to advise potential parents on how laws in their area work and make sure their homes reflect qualities the state is looking for when it makes adoption placements. International adoptions are additionally bound by federal regulations governing immigrants. You make sure adoptions go smoothly, so it’s vital to know the details inside and out.

As an adoption specialist, you’re the middleman between adoptive parents, birth parents, children, and state, federal and international governing bodies. Getting pulled in many different directions is a tough part of the job. But the pull on your heartstrings will be stronger when you see your hard work pay off as you unite families connected by a love that transcends biology.