The Adoption Process

Step 1	Contact the Covenant Care office to request a Pre-Application packet. Return the completed packet to Covenant Care, included a signed “Statement of Faith” and “Church Evaluation Form”.
Step 2	Attend Covenant Care Informational Meeting with approximately 10 to 15 other families to understand more thoroughly how adoption works. CCS has 2-3 meetings each year. (Not required for out of state families.) The next Informational Meeting is Friday, February 5, 2010: 1:00PM – 4:00PM Attendance is by reservation only Crucial to a healthy adoption experience is for each family to participate in our information training sessions for adoptive families. Each family will understand what is required of them as they journey through the adoption process. They will hear testimonies from adoptive couples, birth parents and staff as they explain the different types of adoption experiences.
Step 3	After attending this meeting, you will begin the Home Assessment Process. Depending on the caseworkers and the couple’s availability, this process should take up to 3 months to complete.
Step 4	Attend a second training meeting that includes issues and concerns of closed, semi-open or open adoptions.
Step 5	Complete your portfolio of pictures and your birth parent letter so your Adoptive Family Profile can be available to our birth mothers.
Step 6	As each family completes this process through Covenant Care, please feel free to pursue other agencies or other adoption avenues that may be available.
Step 7	Adoptive Family Profiles are previewed by prospective birth parents that choose the family for their child.
Step 8	Your profile will be shown to birth parents.
Step 9	Your caseworker will help you navigate the waiting period and will thoroughly equip you with the knowledge you will need to proceed once you have been chosen by a birth mother. CCS believes that the best adoptive experiences are always tailored to fit the needs of the adoptive child first and foremost.
Step 10	After a child has been placed with you, Covenant Care arranges monthly supervision of the adoptive placement until the Petition to Adopt is filed.
Step 11	Finalization of the adoptive placement usually occurs within 2 months of the adoptive family’s attorney’s filing the Petition to Adopt. The entire adoptive process after placement takes 4 to 6 months.
Step 12	Covenant Care is continually available to all adoptive families seeking our services, before, during and after the placement of a child in their home. Our commitment to our adoptive families includes being available to them to help with issues related to parenting an adopted child.

The required Adoption Forms can be downloaded here.