Newborn infant adoption is available through Catholic Charities to legally married, childless couples, over the age of 21 who reside in the four counties of the Diocese of Greensburg (Armstrong, Fayette, Indiana and Westmoreland). All adoptions must meet the requirements of the laws surrounding adoption and include the Adoptive Home Study also known as the Family Profile. An adoption discussion group is included in this process during which, as an adoptive couple, you will experience guest speakers who help educate you in the various expectations of adoption.

The adoption of a child over the age of 12 months can often trigger a far-reaching trauma. A child older than an infant placed into foster care or an adoptive home has perhaps had the opportunity to have formed relationships with their primary caretakers, only to have those primary relationships disrupted without warning or preparation. These unpredictable and dramatic changes often create in children thinking processes or behaviors that may then be considered “special needs.” These children may benefit from services such as speech therapy, counseling and remediation in academic areas or significant in-patient treatment for the most severe situations.

 

The special needs of these children require that the adults who plan to care for them have specific preparation themselves to enable the children to grow to their fullest potential. Therefore, there are additional components to the process of preparing adoptive families. The Adoptive Home Study or Family Profile includes a significant training component not required in infant or private adoptions.

 

A critically different component to older child/special needs adoption is that a county children and youth agency has custody of the child. The county children and youth caseworker is responsible for the final decision regarding who will potentially be the best adoptive parent suited for a particular child once the matching process between an adoptive family and a child takes place. The attachment process or the supervisory process can extend well beyond six months in order for the child and parent to commit to each other.

 

Support groups are available to help both the child and the parent cope with their feelings as they forge their path toward becoming a family.

Having achieved the Hague Accreditation through the Council on Accreditation pursuant to the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000, Catholic Charities:

Currently, Catholic Charities is able to directly provide Adoptive Home Study or Family Profile services for international adoptions as well as post placement and post adoption services.