Category: Intercountry
Introduction Heritage travel includes a diverse range of experiences that help individuals, including adoptees, connect with their cultural roots and ancestral origins. Travel can involve explori...
NCFA has been a strong advocate of the Adoption Tax Credit (ATC) since its inception, as a fiscally responsible way to help more American families who want to provide a permanent, loving hom...
The U.S. Department of State has released the FY2022 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption. This covers the period of time from October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022. In the report, the Depar...
Ask your members of Congress to help The situation in Haiti is dire. Last week, Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called the situation in Port-au-Prin...
A lawsuit filed in Merrimack County, New Hampshire Superior Court last week makes serious allegations against numerous individuals and organizations, of child abuse, neglect, and failure to protect...
Considering adoption after infertility can bring a lot of questions, and figuring out how to make the right decisions can feel overwhelming. We hope that these frequently asked questions and answer...
Prospective adoptive parents pursue adoption for various reasons, this can include expanding their family following the birth of a child or creating a family as a single person. For others, the rou...
The U.S. Department of State has published its annual report on intercountry adoptions completed between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021. During this time, there were 1,785 intercountry...
ALEXANDRIA, VA (July 27, 2022) - A new report released by National Council For Adoption (NCFA) highlights the dramatic changes that have taken place in adoption in recent decades and answers key qu...
Introduction While numerous health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control, emphasize the importance of family history in assessing patients' health risk, resources on how medical ...
Thanks to the participation of over 4,200 adoptive parents, NCFA collected an expansive volume of data through our 2021 survey. In our new report, we highlight some of the key findings of our analy...
ALEXANDRIA, VA (May 11, 2022) - A new report released by National Council For Adoption (NCFA) highlights the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on adoption within the U.S. Adoption by the Numbers, a r...
Ensuring U.S. citizenship for their adopted child can be a daunting task for expat parents. Essentially, there are three ways that a foreign-born child can obtain U.S. citizenship following adoptio...
NCFA recently conducted a webinar about supporting people in the adoption community who have roots in Ukraine and Russia. We have compiled a list of resources on this topic below. Supporting Youth ...
May 31, 2022 Update Last week, the U.S. Department of State issued an update regarding Judicial Adoption Hearings in Ukraine. Of note, is the confirmation of what adoptive parents and adoptive serv...
Funded as a cooperative agreement with the Children's Bureau, NTDC is led by Spaulding for Children in partnership with National Council For Adoption (NCFA), Center for Adoption Support and Educat...
On Friday, July 9, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided case No. 20-5158, in which National Council For Adoption (NCFA) was appellant. The matter centered ar...
Learn More - Single Parent Adoption: The Process and Experience of Adopting Unpartnered
Adoption resources for LGBTI/LGBTQ/LGBT parents.
On May 28, 2021, NCFA met via video conference with several African country adoption authority representatives to discuss transparent and ethical intercounty adoptions. I am currently a NCFA intern...
ALEXANDRIA, VA, June 9, 2021 - National Council For Adoption (NCFA) supports the passage of S. 1156 and H.R. 3031, the Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act of 2021 (ATCRA). The proposed legislatio...
Download PDF At various times throughout the year, we are immersed as a culture in times of annual celebration that are strongly linked to traditions, memories, friends, and family. Whi...
By Crystal Kupper Subtle yet steady, a culture war has been slowly brewing in the child advocacy world. It boasts no herald to announce its merits to the nation, and few outside its fields of battl...
With proper financial planning, adoption can be an affordable option for many families. Whether you're interested in adoption grants or loans, the list below includes some of the resources availa...
If you are considering an intercountry adoption you probably have lots of questions and may not be sure where to even begin trying to understand all that is involved. Let's start with the basics, a...
Depending on what type of adoption service you are looking for, you may be able to work with either an adoption agency or attorney, or both. Use this chart to discover your options! Please note tha...
Each November, we recognize National Adoption Month as an opportunity to raise awareness and celebrate adoptive families and their children who have benefitted from both domestic and intercount...
A Note from NCFA: Adoption by the Numbers has now been updated! Please visit adoptioncouncil.org/numbers to see the 2022 report. Adoption: By the Numbers National Council For Adoption's Adoption:...
In 2019, 23 percent of all children in foster care were 13-17 years old, and nearly 6 percent of those were adopted that same year.1 While international adoptions have declined overall since 2005,...
NCFA desires to honor all voices in the adoption community in a variety of ways. Today we welcome Avia Weber to the blog to share her adoption experience. Avia, will you introduce yourself to our bl...
My life changed completely when adoption became part of my story. Adoption encouraged me to become more empathetic, compassionate, understanding, and mature. Adoption led me to a life lived intimat...
Weaving Hope Into Heartache – A Parent’s Perspective If you’re an adoptive parent like me who has had the benefit of training and education rooted in TBRI, then you know how essential Th...
It's not often that you remember exactly where you were when reading a book more than 13 years ago, but I do remember reading a manuscript of Dr. Karyn Purvis' The Connected Child. I was on a...
Updated for Fall 2022 When educators and parents work together to support adopted children in the classroom, great things can happen! But this requires both teachers and parents to be properly inf...
The decision to become a parent brings one of life's greatest joys and carries with it a whole host of commitments and responsibilities to provide for the many needs children have: from the basics ...
When teen adoptee Anna reached out to us on social media to ask how she could support adoption, we welcomed her to share her thoughts and experiences as an adoptee. Anna is the current Miss Pride of...
View and Download PDF Tricia loved being a mom. When she and Sam married after college graduation, they had dreamed of having a large family. By their tenth anniversary, they had two da...
NCFA member agency Hopscotch Adoptions submitted this guest post on behalf of a family who recently traveled to complete the adoption of their daughter Sofija from Serbia. As one of the first famili...
In the early 1990s a treaty was drafted, debated, and eventually finalized that would shape the course of international adoption forever. The treaty, later known as The Hague Convention of 29 May 1...
Our thanks to Lindsay Gilbert, of NCFA member agency Madison Adoption Associates, for sharing her perspective during this time of crisis, as an adoption professional and waiting parent. It’s ...
NCFA has been a strong advocate of the Adoption Tax Credit (ATC) since its inception, because it is a fiscally responsible way to help more American families who want to provide a permanent, lo...
Introduction Now more than ever, adoption agency personnel are being asked to help parents understand pediatric medical and mental health complexities. Whether children are adopted internationally,...
Prioritization of Adoption Visa Adjudication & Granting Humanitarian Parole for U.S. Citizens with Completed Adoptions March 27, 2020 - Alexandria, VA - Many U.S. families in the midst of inter...
The global spread of COVID-19 has significantly impacted travel for adoptions from China since early February. With growing concern about international travel in general and its impact on adopt...
Accreditation has long been used by professions to validate the qualifications of providers and the quality of services. This paper examines the accreditation of intercountry adoption service provid...
NCFA's "Choosing an Adoption Agency" from 2014 has been one of our most popular Adoption Advocates1. It's been recommended as a resource by the Today Show, NBC Dateline, and RESOLVE: The Nationa...
I. Introduction The work of intercountry adoption agencies has always been larger than simply the placement of children with families. In addition to the placement of children, these agencies- as a...
Adoption in the U.S., originally focused on placing healthy infants, has evolved to the point that now the majority of children available for placement either have recognized medical problems or ar...
The decision to begin or grow your family through adoption is certainly life-changing and rewarding. This decision can also bring with it a great deal of uncertainty and emotion. One hundred years ...
Over the past century, transracial adoption in America has become more and more common. In this issue of the Adoption Advocate, Alexis Oberdorfer shares about the history of transracial adoption an...
Last week, the U.S. Department of State highlighted their travel advisory for China to "Level 2." Since that time, adoption agencies have reported that families considering travel to China have b...
What is Subsidiarity? Subsidiarity is one of the most hotly debated and diversely interpreted principles of intercountry adoption.1 But before diving into an explanation of subsidiarity in the int...
Adoption. The real problem of intercountry adoption is that there is too little of it. Adoption is the only institution whereby unparented children become legal daughters and sons by force of a d...
Feeding and mealtimes are rich with opportunities for families to build trust and attachment, but when things aren’t going well, those opportunities are lost. From hoarding to picky eating, worr...
The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, commonly referred to as the Hague Convention on Adoption, went into force internationally in...
The U.S. Department of State has released its FY 2017 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoptions, revealing that American families adopted 4,714 children through intercountry adoption from Octo...
Words matter so much, especially when we’re speaking about something as deeply personal as adoption. Accurate adoption language can help stop the spread of misconceptions about adoption and reflec...
Ethiopia's parliament has passed legislation banning intercountry adoption. NCFA's Ryan Hanlon joined BBC World Service Radio to discuss how this decision places unparented children at risk. NCFA ...
Curiosity about who we are, where we came from, and our significance in life is universal. Today, opportunities abound to search family history to fill in the missing pieces of the past, whether a f...
Several years ago, the Armenian government began a process of deinstitutionalization, which involved substantially reducing the number of publically-run orphanages, residential schools, and night ...
The Council on Accreditation (COA) announced today that the organization has notified the U.S. Department of State of their intent to terminate their role as a national accrediting entity-a ...
Click on the image to view the full FAQs Nobody enjoys filing paperwork or paying filing fees, and for families that have completed an international adoption, they often think...
Military families have the potential to be outstanding adoptive families. They often have an incredible support network of friends. Military families tend to be flexible and adaptable and those are ...
It is critically important that parents who have adopted through intercountry adoption keep their promises and submit post-adoption reports as they committed to during the adoption process. NCFA bel...
Tarrah and Dale turned to adoption because they had always wanted several children. They chose China because it has a well-established relationship with the U.S. and there were so many Chinese ...
Thirty years of research shows that positive interactions between a child and primary caregiver(s) significantly impacts brain development. Studies show that children raised in family-based care (b...
Introduction Since the mid-1940s, the practice of adopting orphaned children internationally has experienced peaks as well as periods of decline, driven in part by public interest, world wars, chan...
I can’t remember when I realized I was adopted. I have always felt a part of my family, even though I don’t have the same skin color as them. Yet, it wasn’t until I got older that I realized o...
Introduction–What is a Third Culture Kid? Third culture kid (TCK) refers to children raised in a culture outside of their biological culture for a significant part of their developmental years.1 ...
When considering intercountry adoption, prospective adoptive parents will hear countries often referred to as "Hague Countries" and "Non-Hague Countries". These can also be called "Convention Count...
Every adoptee has their own personal and unique adoption story. That history is a part of who they are, and remains a part of them as they move from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood....
This article, which is based on a working paper presented at the Ninth Annual Adoption Law and Policy Conference in March 2012, utilizes the 2006-2008 National Survey on Family Growth (conducted by...
November is National Adoption Month! Exciting, right? We think so. An entire month devoted to raising awareness about the positive option of adoption, the thousands of children (104,000 to be exact)...
November is National Adoption Month! Exciting, right? We think so. An entire month devoted to raising awareness about the positive option of adoption, the thousands of children (104,000 to be exact)...
My journey to motherhood changed me in both expected and surprising ways. There were the inevitable twists and turns, ups and downs along the way, but becoming a mother to my two sons has allow...
It is common for transracially adopted children to be curious about their birth heritage and where they came. In my case, this curiosity did not appear until decades later. I was adopted in Taipei, ...
My name is JR Taylor and I am an intern with the National Council For Adoption. Adoption has given me a loving family, great friends and opportunities I may not have found in my birth country. Nee...