Since 1995, Children at Heart had facilitated solely international adoptions, but due to an increased number of calls received at our NC office by local birthmothers seeking adoption services, the Spring of 2011 became the time to form a Domestic Adoption Program.  The goal of the program is to provide adoption services to birthmothers in the Southeastern North Carolina region - as there are no other agencies along the coast of NC.  The program aims to support women both before and after the birth of their babies.  Children at Heart has established a monthly birthmother support group meeting, which hosts women who have already placed a child(ren) for adoption, are pregnant and considering adoption, or are currently in the adoption process.  At this time, we are accepting applications from more families to be available to birthmothers thru our agency. 

It is important to keep in mind that when a birthmother delivers a baby in NC, and then signs a Relinquishment form to place the child for adoption, there is a seven day waiting period in which the birthmother can change her mind and revoke that Relinquishment.  While it can be emotionally painful if a birthmother changes her mind at any point of an adoption plan, we must respect her decision, and know that we have done all we can to help her, and her child, during such a difficult time.  Adoptive families should think of this seven day waiting period as a time that they are fostering the baby while the birthmother makes her final decision about the adoption.  Once the seven day waiting period is up, that is the point when the adoptive family is able to adopt the baby. 

The first step to apply to our Domestic Adoption Program would be to complete our Adoptive Family Application and the Domestic Adoption Agreement (complete the form on the "contact" page to request information on our domestic adoption program).  Once your application is approved, you will move on to complete your home study.  When your home study is approved and finalized, you will put together a photo album with captions depicting what is happening in each photo.  We use the photo album, along with the home study, as your profile to show birthmothers who are ready to choose a family. 

Since this is a new program for our agency, we cannot give you a timeline for how long it will take a birthmother to choose you.  Each family has different preferences for what they can accept in a child/birthmother, so not all families are available to all birthmothers.  Additionally, each birthmother has different preferences for what she is looking for in a family.  This makes it even more difficult to estimate how long it will take for a birthmother to choose your family.  The more open you are as to the type of adoption and the race/sex of the child, the more opportunities there will be to have your profile shown to birthmothers.  But you must be true to yourselves; if you do feel you have preferences, then you must adhere to them - an adoption will not work in the long run if you agree to something you are not comfortable with. 

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For more information on our domestic adoption program, please fill out the information request form on the contact page of our website.