AGENCY SERVICES
Morning Star Adoption Center is a licensed child-placing agency and welcomes the opportunity to complete the full adoption; working with you, your birth mother and the child. Morning Star Adoption Center supports that everyone involved in the adoption process be provided with an advocate and confidant. Morning Star Adoption Center provides separate workers in order to promote the best interest of each client that we serve. Our goal is to provide you with the best possible service while developing a comfortable adoption plan for everyone. We welcome the opportunity to process your adoption, whether we assist you in “matching” with a birth mother or child, or you are able to locate a child for adoption on your own.
If a family or birth mother chooses to work with Morning Star Adoption Center, but the other party would prefer representation by a different agency or attorney, we will assist our client through the completion of the adoption by working cooperatively with the other agency or attorney. Morning Star Adoption Center is comfortable assisting only part of the adoption triad and our fees appropriately reflect the services provided.
DIRECT PLACEMENTDIRECT
CONSENT
In a direct placement adoption, the parent or guardian of the
adoptee personally selects the prospective adoptive parent(s), transfers
physical custody of the adoptee to the adoptive parent(s), and consents to the
adoption. Morning Star Adoption Center has been involved with direct placement
adoptions (also known as direct consent adoptions) since the Michigan Adoption
Code was revised in 1995. The agency does not take custody of the child.
Direct placement adoptions may be facilitated by an agency, an agency and an
attorney, or by two attorneys. We support any of these combinations and support
separate representation for the adoptive parent(s) and the birth parent(s).
Morning Star Adoption Center is available to
assist you with determining the right combination for you and the birth parent(s).
INTERSTATE
Morning Star Adoption Center can always process an adoption in
Michigan, as long as the
adoptive parents, birth parent(s), or child are residing in Michigan. If you
reside in Michigan and are involved in an interstate adoption, at a minimum,
Morning Star Adoption Center will complete the home study and the post-placement
supervision visits and reports. Some states will not process an adoption for
non-resident families or the adoption laws of Michigan may be more
“user-friendly”. In those cases, Morning Star Adoption Center will process the
adoption in Michigan. We are happy to assist you with evaluating which state is the
'best' state to process your adoption.
If the adoption should occur completely in the other state, it may occur with
the assistance of an agency or attorney in the other state. Morning Star
Adoption Center is able
to refer clients to a number of reputable sources, either agencies or attorneys,
to assist a family with an interstate adoption. We are comfortable with
supporting your out-of-state source to complete the adoption.
All interstate adoptions must be processed through and approved by the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children
(ICPC). Morning Star Adoption Center has a great deal of experience in
interstate adoptions and is
open to working with any state in the United States. ICPC clearance must be
obtained prior to a child leaving their state of birth to go to their new home
state. This clearance takes anywhere between a few days and a few weeks,
depending on the legal requirements of your adoption. During this time, the child must reside in
his/her home state. Morning Star Adoption Center will
assist you during this exciting and difficult wait, so that you may return home
as soon as possible with your son or daughter.
Morning Star Adoption Center offers the choice of international adoptions to
interested families. An international adoption is an adoption in which a family
adopts a child from a foreign country. Morning Star
Adoption Center does not own any programs in a foreign country. We do network with
various agencies that own programs in foreign countries, giving our families the
maximum choice of many different programs. Since Morning Star Adoption Center does not own any programs in foreign
countries, the only fees paid to our agency are the standard fees for our
services. These fees generally include the application; home study; and supervision,
counseling, and networking fees (as needed).
The age of available children, as
well as the travel time required, varies from country to country. For more detailed information regarding specific
foreign programs, please refer to the Sample
Table of International Adoption Options. You may also be interested in
the Top Ten Countries of Origin,
which can be found by clicking on the underlined titles.
Some issues that you should consider when deciding to pursue an international
adoption are your willingness to incorporate aspects of your child’s culture
into your life, how open and supportive your family, friends and community will
be of a child who was born in a foreign country, and the fact that you may have
limited genetic health and birth history of the child. The child may be a minority and
will likely face issues that are presented to minority groups in the United
States.
Typical reasons a family will choose international adoption:
1. They feel the wait for the placement of a child is typically much shorter than a
domestic adoption.
2. They feel they will experience a defined time frame in their
international adoption.
3. They like the fact that most foreign countries allow you to specify
the gender of the child you wish to adopt (with the
exception of China).
4. They prefer not to have any involvement with their child’s birth
parents.
Typical reasons a family will not choose international
adoption:
1. They prefer to adopt a newborn. Most infants adopted abroad are
between the ages of 8 months and 14 months when they arrive home.
2. They are uncomfortable with the limited information received about the child's health and birth history.
3. They find the cost of international adoption too high (generally $13,000.00
to $30,000.00).
4. They fear the laws regarding adoption in the foreign country may change
resulting in the closure of adoptions from that country.
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