New iPad/iPhone App helps Navigate the Adoption Process

The Adoption App was created by Sharon Simons, an Adoptive Mom who, after successfully navigating the rigors and challenges of the adoption process, decided to craft an app to make the adoption process much easier for others. This comprehensive, yet easy to use iPad/iPhone application, is a practical working guide – a step-by-step roadmap - to lead you through the many steps & tasks that need to be complete before your Domestic or International Adoption can be approved. The Adoption App: - Offers detailed information & documentation on the Home Study Process for both Domestic and International Adoption - Helps organize the process with detailed checklists of tasks and documentation that needs to be completed - Documentation for Domestic and International Adoptions that you are able to email to yourself through the app, download it to your computer, print, & fill out each document - Identifies and offer quick access to a myriad of adoption resources - Contains a calendar that syncs with your existing calendar to keep you on time for all of your adoption related meetings & appointments - Links to articles & success stories on adoption, motherhood & more - A Share your Story with us feature which allows you to participate in the Mom at Last Community Website - And much more. In 2012 alone, Americans adopted 11,059 children through the use of International Adoptions. Domestic Adoptions totaled in the hundreds of thousands, and these numbers are growing every day. The Adoption App was developed by Sharon Simons. The Adoption App can be viewed and used on all iPads/iPhones including the New iPhone 5. The program lists for $4.99 and is available at the Apple Store. Link: www.itunes.com/apps/theadoptionapp For more information visit www.theadoptionapp.com or Sharon Simons Mom At Last website at www.momatlast.com About the Creator At the age of 39, Sharon Simons fell in love, got married, and tried to have children naturally, but she was unsuccessful in her attempts. She underwent three in vitro fertilization procedures, experienced the elation of pregnancy, the devastation of a late term miscarriage, and suffered an ectopic pregnancy. Sharon and her husband decided to adopt and successfully navigated the emotionally fraught waters of International Adoption to bring home two precious little boys. Her story is the subject of the upcoming book titled Mom At Last. Article: 16th October 2012 www.momatlast.com

Adoption of babies in UK down by 20 per cent in the last year

The number of babies being adopted in Britain has plunged by 20 per cent in the last year, Government figures have shown. Only 76 children under one were permanently taken on by UK families in 2011, down from 95 in 2010. David Cameron is trying to speed up the process because many children are stuck in care for long periods from birth, despite prospective parents being desperate to adopt them. At the moment people have to wait on average two and a half years to have their application processed but the Prime Minister wants this down to three months. Adoptions also increased in Scotland between 2010 and 2011 by 6 per cent, from 466 in 2010 to 494 in 2011. Mission: David Cameron has said he is determined to speed up the adoption process, which currently takes more than two years In a reverse of last year’s figures, 49 per cent of children adopted in 2011 were male and 51 per cent were female. Since 1998, the number of male and female adoptions has been fairly even, the ONS said. Nearly two-thirds - 62 per cent - of children adopted in Britain last year were aged between one and four. The proportion of adopted children aged one to four has steadily increased since 1998. Last year’s figure is almost double the proportion in 1998. Meanwhile, the proportions of adoptions of other age groups has decreased. For children aged between five and nine, the proportion has decreased from more than a third in 1998 to just under a quarter in 2011. The percentage of children between 10 and 14 being adopted has more than halved from over one in five in 1998 to one in 10 in 2011. The percentage of adopted children aged 15 to 17 has decreased to 2 per cent, from 5 per cent in 1998. Under Mr Cameron's plans youngsters will be able to move in with their possible future permanent families before lengthy legal procedures are finalised, the Prime Minister said last month. He hopes the Fostering For Adoption scheme will give children a better start in life by ensuring they have a stable home as quickly as possible. Under the plans, men and women who have been cleared as adopters can become a child’s foster parent until they are legally allowed to adopt them. Now, local authorities generally wait until court orders are made before beginning their search for a permanent home. The move will not pre-empt any legal ruling, meaning the youngsters could be returned to their birth parents or other carers. But the Government hopes it will mean the interests of the children are put first. Article: 7th August 2012 www.dailymail.co.uk

National Adoption Week: have you ever considered adopting a child?

Today is the start of National Adoption Week – Have you ever considering adopting a child? Thousands of children are taken into care every year. Of these many are never lucky enough to become part of a secure loving long-term family. This important week reminds us there are kids out there waiting to be taken in by someone who will make them part of their own family and give them the ‘forever home’ they are longing for.

If you have ever considered the option of adopting, you need to be over 21, patient, and dedicated to offering someone lifelong love and support. It's a huge responsibility, but one that comes with great rewards. For more information about the adoption process click here.

The campaign also asks adopted people over 18 and parents of adopted children to come forward and help out. Possible activities include writing to your local newspaper; putting up posters; writing an adoption blog; doing your own fundraising challenge, or rounding up loved ones to talk them about your individual experiences with adoption. For more information on how you can help, go to the National Adoption Week website for more information.

Also in celebration of National Adoption Week 2011 they are encouraging anyone who is over 18 and has a connection with adoption to enter a short film. It has to be creative and inspiring – you don’t have to own professional equipment to take part, it could even be filmed on a mobile phone. None of that matters – all that matters is that it stands out and fulfils the aims. Once the winner is announced the winner will be awarded in London. Click here for competition details.

If adoption isn’t for you, have you ever considered having a family through co-parenting or using a known sperm or egg donor? Visit www.prideangel.com for more information

Adoption of babies within the UK is becoming even more difficult

Today’s news about the diminishing numbers of babies being adopted in the UK does not at all surprise us. The BBC has today reported that only 60 children under one were adopted in the UK last year, of the 3,500 currently in the care system.
This marks a significant drop from the 150 adoptions of children under one completed in 2007. The drop indicates that the barriers to authorising prospective adopters and to releasing children for adoption seem to be increasing and the process taking longer.

Ann Marie Carrie of Barnado’s has said: “This is a tragedy, it’s a tragedy for the children who are languishing in the care system and frankly it’s a tragedy for those people who have come forward who want to be parents and adopt a child.”

None of this comes as much of a surprise to the many frustrated clients we hear from daily who have considered adoption but instead turned to surrogacy as a means of building their family. Again and again we hear that prospective parents have been actively discouraged from pursuing adoption or told that the process will take many years with no certain outcome.

Parents with an existing child are often told they are only eligible to adopt if there is an age gap of several years between siblings, which in practice rules out adoption entirely (depending on the parents ages) given that so few young children are available.

Again and again we hear that couples who are unable to conceive as a result of infertility or other medical problems, and same sex parents wanting to build a family, would love to offer a home to a child who needs it, but find that adoption simply is not an option for them.

Many of these couples go on to be fantastic parents to their own biological children conceived through fertility treatment or surrogacy. They could have been fantastic adoptive parents to children who desperately need their care.

Article: by Natalie Gamble Associates

What if IVF treatment fails: three peoples stories

Eleni Kyriacou talks to three couples about how IVF and fertility treatment can turn lives upside down
Carole Waters, who has now adopted
Carole, 43, lives in Hampshire with her husband Andy, 43. They have had one IVF cycle and one frozen embryo transfer (FET). They have a daughter, Bea, five.

I was 29 when we first started trying to conceive and we waited five years before having IVF. I was against it for a long time – I didn't like the thought of all those drugs. I was determined to get pregnant naturally and all the tests had shown that we were both highly fertile, so there was no clinical reason why we shouldn't be able to conceive naturally.

Eventually we got sucked into it. I was told that I had the egg reserves of a woman in her 20s, so we were very hopeful. In our area there was no NHS funding, so we paid for it. A woman in the next town had three IVF cycles, all paid for. I hated injecting myself and the mood swings that came with it. I remember the moment I saw the blood and realised it had failed. I screamed and at that point I couldn't have got any lower. It took me six months to deal with it. I became paranoid and felt depressed. For those six months, Andy and I became very insular, almost attached at the hip. We felt only we could understand each other, so we hardly socialised. And, frankly, I was getting fed up of all the platitudes, people saying: "It'll happen, just relax."

IVF made me feel such a failure. Friends were having their third baby and we were still trying for our first. A year later, we had FET – using the frozen embryos left over from the IVF cycle. But that failed too. I had a gut feeling that I would never get pregnant, so we decided to stop. The doctors kept saying there was nothing wrong with us, so we couldn't see what IVF could do for us that we couldn't do ourselves. We had already spent £4,000 and continuing would have felt like throwing money away.

So we agreed that we wouldn't have children. It was heartbreaking, though deep down I don't think I really believed that. Eventually we started socialising again and we'd walk into parties, heads held high, and pretend everything was OK and that we were quite happy the way we were.

We had briefly talked about adoption but dismissed it, as we had read that you couldn't adopt a baby if you were over 35. We wanted a baby, not a toddler; it was a basic need in me and we wanted to be as much of an influence in the child's life as possible. About a year later, by chance, I bumped into a colleague in the car park at work. She was adopting two siblings. She told me that there weren't the age limits on adopters we had assumed. I had also heard that the process was harrowing, but she said, "It's nowhere near as bad as IVF." That resonated.

Andy and I agreed that, though we were happy now, we'd be full of regret when we were older. In 10 years, we might be holidaying in the Maldives but what would it mean without a family? And what about when we were older? We regularly socialise with our parents and my Mum and I are very close. We wanted that for us in the future. We decided to explore adoption and it took two years, from that first phone call to having Bea come to live with us. She was nine months old.

I had to give up on the idea of having my own genetic child and there was a certain amount of mourning involved. The notion left my head but it was still in my heart. I can pinpoint the day when the idea finally left me for good. It was the day we were approved for adoption. Before that, I was still thinking, maybe I will still get pregnant, as everyone says it will happen when you least expect it. Since then I haven't cared about getting pregnant and now I wouldn't want a birth child, because Bea might feel left out. I don't want that complication for her. If someone said I could go back 10 years and get pregnant, I categorically wouldn't do it.

I feel so proud of our daughter and what we've done. Anyone can have a baby, but not everyone can adopt. There's no doubt in our minds that we weren't meant to have a biological child, because she was already there waiting for us. It's one of the best things we ever did. I know women on their seventh and eight IVF cycles. It's heartbreaking. I wish they would consider adoption as another way to achieve a family, rather than as a second best.

For more information on adoption, visit www.baaf.org.uk

To read more go to http://bit.ly/pZssDB

Gay and lesbian couples now allowed to adopt in New South Wales

Gay and lesbian couples are finally allowed to adopt in New South Wales, Australia, after it was first proposed 10 years ago by MP Clover Moore.
The bill to allow same-sex couples to adopt in New South Wales, Australia, has narrowly passed in the lower house.

It passed a vote 46-44 last week, and after amendments were made, passed 45-43.

The bill was introduced by independent MP Clover Moore, who agreed yesterday to insert a clause allowing faith-based adoption agencies to discriminate against gay couples.

Another amendment was added today to allow birth parents the right to state their preference that their children are not adopted by gay couples without breaching anti-discrimination laws.

Church groups welcomed the amendments, saying they were necessary to prevent people and organisations being sued for expressing their beliefs.

However, gay rights groups in the state have said they are concerned that the gay community is not being vocal enough in supporting the laws and has urged people to write to their MPs.

To read more go to