Many families want to adopt a child as an infant. In infant adoptions, adoptive families often interact with and develop a relationship with birth families prior to the birth of the child. Infant adoptions can happen through agency or private arrangements. Agency adoptions typically come with a higher price tag, often upwards of $30,000. Independent adoptions can be less costly, but also require more work from the adoptive parents to find a birth parent. Infant adoption does present some benefits in terms of building a positive attachment to the child at an early age, but as with biological children, there are many factors and risks that are unknown prior to the birth of the child. Connecting Hearts, Inc. can help you with your Wyoming home study and connecting with other agencies or birth parents to find your adoptive placement.

Many families choose to care for children who are in need of a safe and stable environment, but are not yet available for adoption. These children are often working toward reunification with biological families. In a foster-adopt situation, families would go through training and a home study process with the state child welfare agency with the hopes of caring for children in their home that may eventually be available for adoption, or providing shorter term care for children who eventually return to live with biological families. These are considered legal risk placements, meaning there is a chance that the children you are caring for will not ever be available for adoption and may be placed in another care setting.

Many children in the foster care system are available for adoption and looking for their forever families. On any given day, there are nearly 428,000 children in foster care in the US. The average age of a child in foster care is 8 years old. Many of these children have special needs as a result of difficult experiences in their early childhood. There are also many sibling groups hoping to be placed together. The net cost of foster care adoption can be zero with adoption tax credits and state subsidies that reimburse many traditional adoption expenses. Connecting Hearts can assist Wyoming residents to adopt a child from foster care in any state. You can become the family that a waiting child is hoping and praying for. 

• Many families choose to adopt from another country. In many parts of the world, there are large populations of orphaned children living in difficult conditions. International adoption is governed by the laws of the country where the children live in addition to laws where the adoptive family live and may also be subject to Hague Convention agreements. It can be a complicated process and usually takes longer than domestic adoptions and costs significantly more, but can also be a rich and rewarding experience for families. Wyoming families hoping to adopt internationally must have an approved home study from a licensed Wyoming agency. Connecting Hearts, Inc. works with Hague approved International Adoption Agencies to complete home studies in the state of Wyoming.

• Embryo adoption is a new and exciting possibility for many families. Families who engage in the in-vitro fertilization process often have frozen embryos left when they decide to stop growing their family. These families often have a desire to give these embryos a chance at life and work with specific agencies to find appropriate families who are good candidates to carry a successful pregnancy. Embryo adoption includes aspects of adoption law and property law and has some unique considerations, but also presents a unique opportunity. The decision to pursue embryo adoption should be discussed closely with your physician. Wyoming families hoping to go through the embryo adoption process must have an approved home study from a licensed Wyoming agency. Connecting Hearts, Inc. is trained to provide home studies for embryo adoptions and can help connect you with placing agencies.